The Past Is In the Past
by LadybugTamer
Summary: What if you had a chance to change all the things that were wrong with your past? Would you do it? Queen Elsa is faced with this temptation. What will become of the future she so loves when she changes the past?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: ****Respice ****I****n ****P****raeteritum ****M****utare**

Dawn's pink and purple tendrils slowly inched across the eastern sky, brushing against the tranquil face of Arendelle's contentedly sleeping queen. The long lashes that fanned against her face fluttered as the first morning's light gently kissed them awake. Yawning, due to not having actually acquired much sleep the night before, she slowly began to stir when she realized a heavy arm was wrapped around her waist and had tightened its grip. In a husky voice, the owner of the arm spoke into her ear, "Good morning, _Wife_."

She rolled to face him, blue eyes meeting green, with a smile that could only be described as warm and flirtatious. "Good morning, Husband," she replied, her voice a playful purr. They had been man and wife for almost a year, but Elsa never tired of hearing James calling her "Wife," nor did she tire of calling him "Husband." When they were alone in their chambers, they weren't the Queen and Prince Consort. They were no one's sister, brother, grandchild, aunt, uncle, mother, or father. Alone together for this short time each day they were just what they were to each other and nothing else.

He fingered a few loose strands of her soft platinum hair in the manner they both loved. "Elsa, we should get up soon if we want to get in a ride alone together today before Kristoff and I leave to tour the Borderlands tomorrow."

Suggestively she ran her fingers along his chest, bit her lip, and looked up at him with imploring sapphire eyes. "_Or_ we could just stay in bed all day today?" She knew she was asking for the near-impossible. If they were to stay in the castle, they would undoubtedly be met with countless distractions and interruptions, even if they tried to remain within their chambers. Such was the lot of the Queen of Arendelle and her Prince Consort.

James Westbrooke didn't know what exactly it was that he did to earn the love of Queen Elsa of Arendelle, but he thanked the heavens above for every morning that he was allowed to wake with her in his arms. The most amazing part was that Elsa felt exactly the same regarding him.

The Queen and her Prince Consort were indeed a very blessed couple. The had their health and their youth. They had a robust toddler in their adopted son, Aidan, a large extended family who loved them dearly, and a kingdom who adored them - especially together as a couple. The one missing piece to perfect the puzzle would be a child born to them - an heir to the throne of Arendlle and more importantly a product of their true love and devotion. Alas, as their one-year anniversary neared it was still only a wish and not yet a reality though not for a lack of trying.

"Elsa, do not tempt me," James growled into her ear, his hot breath sending shivers down her spine. "As tempting as spending the entire day alone with you in bed is, and you know me well enough to know that it is, something or someone will interrupt us. I know of one particularly demanding resident of the castle who will not leave us alone, and I very much want to spend this last day before my journey completely wrapped up in you."

Even after a year of marriage, Elsa still blushed profusely whenever James said something with a double meaning, even if she was capable of doing just the same. "Yes, where Mama and Papa are, there Aidan should also be -at least in his opinion. I'll have to thank Granny for taking charge of him in order to give us this day alone together. I'm rather jealous that he had you to himself all day yesterday, even though I have been given today."

James continued playing with her hair and told her, "You were welcome to join us at any time, but you and Anna were tied up in that day-long meeting with the chancellor. Besides," he grinned, showing off his single dimple, "you had me last night," before rolling over on top of her.

A wicked grin spread across her face, "That I most certainly did," she told him, expecting more of the same. To her vexation, he only smacked his hand across her backside, not unlike he would a horse, and rolled complete over her and off the bed to dress for the day.

"Come on!" He held his hands out to pull her out of bed. "There's somewhere special I want to take you!"

"Fine!" Elsa reluctantly agreed. "You do realize I get very few free days, don't you?"

James cocked his head and laughed, "I think all of us who love you are very well aware of that, Elsa. Now get into your riding habit! We must away before Aidan wakes, or he'll demand we take him with us!"

From her dressing room Elsa agreed, "Yes, the Little Admiral is becoming more of a Little Dictator. It is time to start disciplining him more, now that he is older."

"I quite agree, Dearest," James agreed while tying his own cravat. He was having a difficult time of it, but he and Elsa had given the valet and ladiy's maid the day off. "Of course that will mean that we will both have to be consistent. You cannot give in to him when he gives you the sad eyes."

"Why not?" Elsa called from her dressing room. "He has your eyes, and you haven't complained when I have given in to your wants and desires. I cannot resist those Westbrooke green eyes."

"I'm glad my brother has my mother's eyes," James muttered to himself. Elsa walked out of her dressing room wearing a new riding habit made of royal blue velvet, leaving her husband quite breathless. He managed to tell her, "You have me almost considering your plan of staying here, within our chambers this morning."

An look of annoyance crossed Elsa's face. "Oh no, James! You _made_ me leave our warm, comfortable bed. You did not force me to take the time to put on this outfit, sans my lady's maid, just for you to get me out of it! You had your chance. You will take me to this place you were so adamant about, and _then_ you can get me out of this habit!"

James sighed. "Fine, but I think I know where Aidan learned to be a dictator." He offered her his arm, "Are you ready?"

Elsa wouldn't admit it to James, but she was glad he got her out of bed that morning. She was always a little sad whenever she missed watching a sunrise as picturesque as the one they witnessed together that morning. "So where are you taking me?" she asked, scratching Argus' ear?

James watched her spoil his horse from atop Kari with a bit of annoyance. "When are you going to give me back my horse?"

Elsa cocked her head to him, "Oh, James. It's been three years since I first claimed him as my own. I think he is more my horse now."

"Horse thief. I will tell you that where I am taking you is related to the day you first stole my horse, and here we are." James informed her as the continued to ride up the mountains of Arendelle.

Elsa looked around at her surroundings and didn't notice anything spectacular about the place. "Wait, what? Where are we?"

James dismounted Kari then helped Elsa down from Argus. "Dearest, do you not recognize the place where you first told me that you loved me?"

Elsa looked around some more, remembering the day she brought down her ice palace then managed to almost drown and freeze James to death, and hid her face in his chest, laughing. She lifted her head. "I think I was more concerned with not killing you than paying attention to how beautiful my surroundings were at the time!"

James pulled her down to sit in his lap against a tree. "Well, I for one think this site should be made into a shrine. This is the spot where the magnificent Queen Elsa of Arendelle declared that she loved me and couldn't live without me, even if she thought that I didn't hear her declaration at the time. Elsa, I know that when I return there will be many celebrations for the anniversary of our first year of marriage, but I wanted to spend this time alone with you here first, where our love really began. This past year as your husband has been greater than I ever dreamed. I love you, _Wife_."

Elsa ran her hand lovingly along his face and smiled warmly up at him. "James, I know now that I can live without you, but I never want to experience that again. It's not an abundant life, but more like survival - at least until Aidan came along. You too have made this past year something greater than I could ever have dreamed, because until just before I met you I never dared to dream of such happiness and contentment. _You_ are my _heart_, Husband." She leaned up to grace him with a kiss.

After some time, James pulled away and glanced about the little clearing in the woods. "Some day we'll have to bring Aidan and all of our other children to this spot where our family's story began."

Elsa threw off her hat with a heavy sigh, staring at the ground beneath her feet, "_If_ there ever are any more children…"

"Elsa," James protested.

Elsa placed a hand on James' chest. "No James, it's been almost a year and nothing. What if I can't have children? What if after all, my powers are a curse that prevents me from carrying children of my own body? What if we never give Arendelle an heir?"

James tenderly brushed a stray strand of hair from her face. Oh how he hated that she was hurting and there was nothing he could do. "Then we keep trying."

"James, I'm serious. I love Aidan more than I could ever begin to explain, but I also want a child that is part you and me. Every month we try and every month when it doesn't happen I feel like a failure!"

James cupped her face in his hands and kissed her melancholy brow. "Elsa, have you ever considered why people who aren't trying seem to be the ones who have children so easily?"

"No."

"It's because they're not worried about it. It's the last thing from their minds. Worry and anxiety do not aid in creating children. Let us just enjoy each other, enjoy being together, and enjoy loving each other as a man and wife should! There is plenty time for children yet!"

"And if we never have a child that is from our bodies?" Elsa asked, the worry still evident in her eyes. "What if our only child is Aidan?"

"We will love him as we always have. Then Anna will be queen, then Betsy (the diminutive Elsabet had been given in order to distinguish her from all of the Elsas), just as you planned when you believed I was dead. There is little more to do than what we have been doing to make it happen, Elsa. You must be less anxious and relax."

James looked at her, more serious than he had been all day. "I have never doubted that we will have a castle-full of children. Remember? Children with your eyes and my dashing smile? We just have to give it time and _relax_."

Elsa steadied herself on the found and continued, "What if we do have children though, James? Granny and I have talked. My powers are so much stronger than hers. She can't create living things, but I can. We both believe that the winter rose made my inherited powers stronger. What if our children have these powers?" she asked, creating a few snowflakes in the air.

"Then we will guide them with all the knowledge you have acquired in the past four years concerning them. You understand your powers and know how to control them. You have mastered your powers, they no longer master you. You will start off teaching any child that. We won't lock anyone behind closed doors. We will hug and love them until they're sick of it! Most of all, we will relax and enjoy the blessings in our life!"

"You are very stuck on this entire subject of relaxing, James," Elsa laughed, trying to make light of everything.

James kissed her passionately, leaning her into the grass. "That I am. I am determined to help you to relax before we return to the castle. Let me now begin by finally getting you _out_ of that riding habit!"

"James!" Elsa shrieked as their little area of the forest filled with the sounds of two people very much in love.

* * *

><p>Two weeks later, Elsa was sitting in the East Garden with Granny, watching Aidan and Elsabet playing together, waiting on Anna to join them. The children were playing on the ground with some toys.<p>

"Where is Anna?" Granny asked, looking for her youngest granddaughter. "I thought she would be with Betsy?"

Elsa stifled a yawn. "I don't know where she is. When I went to the nursery for Aidan, Betsy begged to come with us, so I had Nanny Matilde tell Anna that she would be here with us when Anna came to look for her." She yawned again, catching her grandmother's notice.

"Elsa, you look positively exhausted! Are you well?"

Elsa smiled lightly at Granny's concern. "I haven't slept well while James and Kristoff have been away. It's funny how after only a year I've grown to where I can't sleep alone."

"I don't think that it's funny at all. I still awake at night, expecting to find your grandfather, and he's been gone far longer than we were even married. Still yet, you look a little peaked, Elsa. Is there more than just restless night's bothering you?"

Elsa started to answer but caught Aidan push his younger cousin who was barely walking to the ground. "Aidan James Westbrooke! Come here this instant!" The toddler approached his mother with his head hanging low. "Aidan, we do not push people, especially your younger cousin. She's smaller than you and loves you! She's just trying to act like you! It's your job to always take care her and protect her! Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Mama," the little boy answered his mother, garnering a kiss on his ruddy head.

"Good. Now apologize to your cousin," Elsa instructed, sending him back to Betsy.

"I sorry, Bets. I wuv you."

"Ai!" was all Bets could say.

Once Elsa was certain all was well between the children, she returned to her conversation with Granny. "Oh, there have been reports of Wesleton ships raiding our merchants. We sent Minister Knutzen to confront the Duke, but I'm fairly certain it will come to nothing. That man is itching for a fight some day. We're not ready yet, but we're getting there. We're just trying not to attract attention to it. I want to avoid a war at all costs, but I worry that it's inevitable. Then I worry that when it does happen I'll have to send James off to lead the battle. Or if it takes years upon years to escalate, both James _and_ Aidan."

Granny watched little Aidan entertaining his younger cousin. "Mothers of sons always run the risk of having to be brave enough to send their boys into battle. Queens, unfortunately, have to send other wives' husbands and mothers' sons as well."

Elsa took a sip of tea, "I think about it all the time."

Granny took Elsa's hand into hers. "Elsa, we're not at war. We may never be in your lifetime. You cannot live in fear and worry. You, above all others know that fear is your greatest enemy. You should try to get some rest, dear. You want to look fresh when James returns. I'll watch the children until Anna appears. They're too little to get into too much trouble, aren't they?"

Elsa shifted her eyes to where Betsy was eating mud pies provided by Aidan and sighed, "_Well_…'

"Go! Take a nap before dinner, Elsa. I'm sure Anna will be along shortly." Granny started to push Elsa out of her seat.

Elsa glanced one more time at the children, then agreed with a yawn. She stepped over to Aidan and Betsy, giving each a kiss goodbye on the tops of their heads before heading inside with the intention of getting a much-needed rest.

Of course they ended up as just intentions, because once inside the castle, Elsa ran into her sister. "Elsa, you have to see what I purchased from a traveling flimflam man!" Anna told her as she hooked her arm through Elsa's.

Elsa sighed, realizing her nap would have to wait just a little while longer. "Anna, I just left Granny with the children in the East Garden to try and get a nap." She pointed in the direction of her bed chambers.

Anna eyed her sister briefly. "Okay, I'll go take over in just a moment. First come see what I purchased! Then, I'll let you get some sleep. You do look awfully tired."

Elsa stifled a yawn, "I haven't been sleeping well since James has been gone. You seem to be faring better in Kristoff's absence."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Of course I am! Don't get me wrong, because I love Kristoff, but it has been heavenly not having to try to sleep through his snoring for a bit. Besides, he's often away, harvesting ice. I'm rather used to it. Come," she pulled her sister o her own bed chamber, "you have to see this!"

It was Elsa's turn to roll her eyes. "Oh no, Anna. Please tell me that you haven't purchased another one-man-band, have you? I don't think my ears can handle it!"

"No, no, no, Kristoff told me that he would go live with Sven in the stables if I bought another after you destroyed the last one with ice. I just bought the most exquisite mirror today for my chambers," Anna assured her sister.

"A mirror seems harmless enough. Did you get a good price for it?" Elsa asked, knowing her sister's habit of paying too much for everything.

Anna shrugged. "How should I know? I just thought it looked nice." She then led Elsa to the chambers she shared with Kristoff to show off her latest purchase. It was an old mirror, made of what looked to be very old oak. It was very interesting looking, with what looked like sun-dials carved all along the wood. "Isn't it interesting? I just _had_ to have it! It's just like the one Mama had! I've always wanted a floor-length mirror since I was a little girl and would play dress up in front of Mama's," Anna admitted.

Elsa ran her hands along the wood, inspecting the intricate artwork. "It is _interesting_, Anna. Why didn't you just take Mama's old one? They are just alike," she looked to her sister. "In fact, I think that Mama used to have several, and she sold them. There's a chance you just purchased on of her old ones."

Anna shrugged, "I don't know. It just seemed wrong to take it from her rooms. We haven't changed anything about them in seven years."

Elsa stared at her figure in the mirror. "I know. I've been thinking about that. With our ever-growing family, I think it's time to renovate _their_ chambers."

Anna's eyes grew large as she eyed Elsa's stomach. "Do you have something you want to tell your baby sister?"

"What?" Elsa asked, startled by Anna's assumption. "No! It's just that Aidan and Besty are both getting older and will need their own chambers eventually, and I'm sure you'll have another soon. I… " she sighed, placing her hand on her stomach. "I have no announcements to make."

Anna hugged Elsa, knowing how much she wanted to have a child with James. "_Relax_. It will happen in due time. Mama didn't have you until she and Papa were married almost three years. Kristoff and I were married almost a year before I fell with Betsy. Let's not forget that Aunt Lillian and Uncle Albert were married almost _six_ years before Rapunzel was born. You just need to relax and enjoy being married to your husband, Elsa. Don't try to rush things. Didn't you tell me something similar when Kristoff and I were newlyweds?"

Elsa hugged her sister back. "Perhaps I did. You sound like James. He said close the same thing this morning.

"Well, great minds do tend to think alike," Anna laughed.

Elsa leaned her head on Anna's shoulder, "Whatever would I do without you, sister of mine?" she asked, without even really thinking about what she said.

Anna grew quiet. "Sadly, we know."

"Not a day goes by that I don't regret not opening my doors to you when you knocked, wasting so much precious time together," Elsa told her in a hushed voice.

There was a knock on the door before Elsa could respond. Roda, the children's nursemaid was at the door.

"Your Highness, Her Majesty, The Queen Grandmother requests your presence immediately. It appears that Master Aidan and Princess Elsabet are throwing mud at each other. She also said not to bother Queen Elsa."

Anna sighed. "Of course they have. I'll be right there." She turned to Elsa, "Elsa, go, get some rest and relax. You can't change the course of nature. Things will happen as they happen. We just have to make the most of what we're given. As to the past, it's in the past. We can only work to make our future better."

Anna left Elsa, still staring at herself in the mirror, wondering how life might have been different for her had she opened the door to Anna much earlier. She then saw an inscription in Latin, carved into the wood at the top of the mirror. "Respice in praeteritum mutare," Elsa read aloud.

"Look within to change the past?" She stared within the mirror, thoughtfully repeating the phrase in Latin over and over again, not noticing the strange, purplish, swirling cloud appearing in the reflection. She repeated a fifth time when suddenly a bright light flashed throughout the chambers. When the light cleared, Queen Elsa had vanished.

Princess Anna turned back to get an old apron to put on before dealing with her muddy daughter and nephew witnessing the flash of light. Worried for her sister's safety, she rushed back to her chambers, finding them empty. "Elsa!" she called to the air, knowing her sister hadn't had time yet to leave the room on her own. A second flash of light materialized, depositing on the floor and unconscious Elsa, dressed in nightclothes that Anna vaguely recognized from their teenaged years. "_Elsa_!" Anna cried out, trying to rouse her sister, but alas Queen Elsa would not awaken.

* * *

><p>Here friends, is the first chapter of the new and improved The Past Is In the Past.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: ****Subtle Differences**

_Knock, knock, knock-knock, knock_. "Elsa? I know you're in there," Anna called from behind the wooden doors to Elsa's chambers, waking her older sister from a deep slumber.

Elsa stirred in her bed, unable to remember how she got there when she heard Anna's signature knock once more. _Knock, knock, knock-knock, knock_. Elsa sat up in bed and called to her sister, "Anna? _Why_ are you knocking? Since when do you not just come in here, especially when you know I'm alone?" Then she whispered to herself, "and sometimes when I'm _not_." She called out to her sister again, "The door's unlocked, just like it always is. Come on in here!"

There was silence on the other side of the door, which was odd for Anna. Elsa stepped out of bed, pulled on a robe, and started fixing her hair as the doors slowly creaked open. Anna first poked her head through, peeking at Elsa's room. Then slowly she stepped one foot in, then the other, altogether unsure of herself. She was acting so oddly it caused Elsa to laugh and ask, "What's with you, Anna? Just come on in here. You're acting like you've never been in here before."

Anna slowly stepped closer to Elsa, surprised by her open, friendly demeanor. This was not the sister she had known for the past several years. It was more like the sister she remembered once having… "I-I _haven't_ ever been in here before," Anna nervously answered her.

Elsa sat her brush down on the vanity and turned to cast a worried eye on Anna. "Anna, are you feeling well?" She got out of her chair to place a loving hand on Anna's forehead to check her temperature. This action caused Anna to jump back and stare at Elsa's bare hands.

"You- you're _touching_ me, and you're not wearing your gloves!" she exclaimed.

Elsa's brow furrowed. She held up her hands and said, "My gloves? I haven't worn my gloves in years, Anna. You know that."

Anna shook her head in disbelief. "You wore them to dinner just last night I mean, I've _always_ thought it odd that you wear them all the time, even when eating, but _you do_! Then you touched me! You don't ever touch other people anymore, and you _never_ let us touch you!"

Elsa waved her ungloved hand, "That's just ridiculous, Anna. I only wear gloves when I go riding, and I haven't had a problem with human contact, at least with those I love, in years."

"Don't you _need_ the gloves?" Anna asked. "Wait, when do you ever go _anywhere_, much less ride? You hardly ever leave this room, because of your phobia! Wait.. Did you just say that you still _love_ me?"

Elsa was growing impatient with Anna's odd behavior. Placing her hands on her hips, she told her, "_What_? What phobia? What are you talking about? Anna seriously, you're acting very peculiar, which is saying a lot for you. I think I should send for a doctor and maybe send a rider to bring James and Kristoff home quicker." She pulled Anna into a hug and continued, "Of course I love you! You _know_ that! I don't know what's wrong with you, Anna, but we'll get this taken care of."

Anna shook her head again. "Elsa, _you're_ the one who's acting odd. You've never let me in here - not in all the years since you moved out of what used to be _our_ room! I've been knocking on this door _for years_, and never once have you told me that I could enter. Usually you tell me to go away if you acknowledge my existence at all. What happened to your fear of dirt, and _who_ are James and Kristoff?"

"My _what_?" Elsa exclaimed. "You know exactly who James and Kristoff are, Anna. Next you'll be telling me you don't know who Aidan and Elsabet are."

Anna glared at Elsa incredulously. "You know, your _fear of dirt_; the reason you _always_ wear the gloves. I have never met a James, Kristoff, Aidan, nor an Elsabet. What kind of name is Elsabet, anyway? What type of moron would name their child that? I don't who these people are." She leaned close to Elsa again and asked, "Are they your _imaginary friends_?"

"Imaginary _what_? I don't have any imaginary friends, Anna. I'm not crazy, you know! I am convinced that you aren't well," Elsa told her, sitting her on her bed. She looked over her sister and noticed that she looked a little younger than she remembered. She seemed much more slender than normal also. It was then that she noticed the white streak still gracing Anna's strawberry blond hair. Elsa ran her fingers through the streak of her sister's hair. "Your white streak! When did _this_ return?"

"Return?" Anna asked. "I've always had it. I dreamed that a troll kissed me and put it there!"

Elsa sighed. "Anna, you've known for four years that I gave you that streak when I accidentally hit you in the head with my powers when we were children."

Anna couldn't believe what Elsa just told her. "Powers? _What powers_? What are you talking about, Elsa?"

Elsa just stared at Anna in disbelief then grabbed her hand, pulling her out to the hallway. "Gerda! Gerda!" She called for the housekeeper.

Gerda ran down the hallway, seemingly shocked to see Elsa outside her room with her younger sister in hand. "Your Highness?"

"Gerda," Elsa started, choosing to ignore the breech in protocol of being referred to as "Your Highness" and not "Your Majesty." She continued, "Princess Anna seems to be feeling unlike her normal self today. I think it best we summon the royal physician immediately."

"Gerda, I'm fine!" Anna pulled herself from Elsa's tight grasp. "It's Elsa's who is acting all strange! She actually let me in her room and is talking about things like powers and people I've never heard of!" Anna argued, pointing a finger at Elsa.

Elsa argued back. "_Anna_! How can you forget your own family! I think there's something terribly wrong with your head. Your streak has returned, and you can't even remember your own husband and daughter!"

Now Anna and Gerda were both staring at Elsa as if she had lost her mind. "I don't have a husband, and I certainly don't have a daughter, Elsa. I'm only fourteen years old!"

Elsa stopped, and the temperature in the hallway dropped considerably. "Fourteen years old?" She looked to Gerda who nodded in agreement. "Then how old am I?

"Your Highness, you're about to have your seventeenth birthday," Gerda informed her.

Elsa touched her hands to her face and shook her head. "Wait, what? I'm only _sixteen_?" She ran to a mirror in the hallway, looking herself over, searching for signs that she was younger. She shook her head, seeing the scar on her right temple from the cut she received when the chandelier fell on her during the attack in her ice palace. Then she looked back at Anna, who appeared so young and still had that streak in her hair. None of what Anna and Gerda were telling her was making any sense at all. Yet, she noticed subtle differences in the castle that were like they had been in the past from paintings in their old places to the shuttered windows. "If I'm sixteen, then that means…"

Just then a door down the hallway opened abruptly, and a voice called out, "What on earth is going on out here?"

Elsa's head snapped at the sound of that voice. To her, she hadn't heard it in over seven years, and sometimes wondered if she had forgotten it. "Mama!" she cried out, before running to her and wrapping her arms tightly around her. "Oh Mama, I've missed you!"

* * *

><p>I'm not really planning to change a whole lot in this. Basically I just want to clean it up and have continuity between it and The Gradual Thaw Expanded.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: ****Explanations**

Elsa held her mother tightly, unwilling to let go of her, just drinking in the scent of her as she buried her head in her mother's chest. Queen Idun was flabbergasted at this unheard-of intimacy with her eldest daughter. Unsure of what to do - Elsa hadn't allowed so much physical contact in years - she just stroked her daughter's hair, relishing being given the opportunity to do so. It was wonderful and _magical_, almost as wonderful as the very day Elsa had been born. Then she felt her daughter's chest convulse as she began to sob in her arms.

Reluctantly, the queen pulled away from her daughter a bit to take a good look at her. "Elsa? Whatever is the matter?"

Elsa looked up into her mother's loving yet concerned eyes which were so similar to her own. "I-I just haven't seen you in so long, and I've missed you more than I allowed myself to admit."

Anna stepped forward to voice her concerns. "Elsa's acting _very_ odd, Mama. When I knocked on her door, she actually told me to come _into_ her room. Then when I got in there, she acted like I'm in there all the time, which we know isn't true. Then she started talking about people I've never heard of, saying that I'm married and have a daughter! She must have a fever or something!"

Before their mother could reply, Elsa turned to her sister, "Anna, I am perfectly well. I can't explain it very easily but…" Her hand flew to her mouth as her stomach suddenly seemed to started doing summersaults. "Oh. Oh my!" She flew back to her room and quickly found a basin in which to lose her stomach.

Her mother, Anna, and Gerda followed closely behind, now more concerned with her health. Elsa herself wondered at what could possibly be wrong. She had never felt so ill so quickly in her life, but as quickly as it came, it disappeared.

"Elsa dear, are you well?" her mother asked from her doorway, expecting a barrage of snow and ice to appear and was shocked when it didn't.

Elsa cleaned herself then answered, "I'm fine, Mama. I don't know what happened. I just felt ill all of a sudden, but I'm fine now."

"Are you certain that you're fine, Elsa? I could send for the physician if you need him," her mother offered.

"No really, Mama. There's no worry. I must've eaten something last night that didn't agree with me." Then Elsa did something she wasn't known to do in company, she smiled.

Anna interjected, "Mama, she is _not_ fine. I think she must have some sort of brain fever. She was talking about magical powers and those people I've never heard of. She acted like we spent a lot of time together too or something, which we haven't done in like nine years, four months, and eight days. It was weird."

The queen turned back to Elsa, even more concerned after what Anna just revealed, "You told Anna about your powers?"

"I thought she already _knew_," Elsa shrugged. The Anna she was used to knew _everything_ about her and more!

"Wait, what?" Anna just stared at her mother. "You can't seriously tell me that Elsa has powers of some sort, can you? Is this why we've been separated?"

Elsa's patience was growing short. Somehow, she had traveled eight years into the past. Either that, or she was having one very odd dream. It couldn't have been a dream though, because everything and everyone seemed so real. It couldn't have been more real while she lost the contents of her stomach, either. That in itself was odd. Elsa wasn't one to ever be ill. She was thrilled to see her mother again, but everyone else's confusion as to her behavior was purely frustrating.

"Oh, for Heaven's sake!" She cried out before waving her hands and conjuring something with her powers.

"Hi! I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!" the familiar snowman announced causing her mother to pass out cold.

Twenty minutes later, Queen Idun, known as Isabel to all her family, awoke to find herself laid out on a chaise lounge in her personal chambers: Gerda holding smelling salts under her nose, and Elsa nervously patting her hand. As the fog began to clear, she saw Anna across the room, animatedly speaking to _someone _whose voice she didn't recognize. She decided to ask her daughter what had happened.

"Elsa, what happened? I thought I saw you create a snowman with your powers, and he-he spoke!"

A look that appeared to be guilt came over Elsa's face. She bit her lip and admitted, "That actually did happen, Mama. I sort of lost my temper, and that's Olaf," she pointed to whom Anna was speaking. "He's my friend from… well, the future."

Her mother sat up to eye both Elsa and the living snowman. "I'm sorry, I'm confused. Did you just tell me that you're from the future? I don't believe it. You must be ill, just as Anna said."

Elsa grabbed her mother's hand and pled with her to believe what she was saying. "I know this seems impossible to believe, but just yesterday I was watching my son and niece playing together while awaiting the return of my husband and brother-in-law to return from a trip to the Border Lands. Then I woke up this morning in my chambers to a fourteen-year-old Anna knocking on my door. From what I can gather, I have traveled eight years into my past. I'm guessing Papa is in Middleham on a state visit currently, and you're to leave for Corona in a few days to meet him and be there for the releasing of Rapunzel's lights?"

"Who is Rapunzel?" her mother asked.

Elsa smacked her head with her hand. "I forgot! She wasn't born Rapunzel, that was what Gothel called her. I meant Bella. You're going to Corona to be with Uncle Albert and Aunt Lillian for the release of Bella's lights."

Her mother nodded, still studying her eldest daughter closely. The light caught the faint, discolored line on Elsa's left temple, the previously mentioned scar from the incident in her ice palace. The queen may not have been allowed to be as close to her eldest daughter as she would have preferred, but she knew her face better than the back of her own hand. Her Elsa had no such scar. "Elsa, where or when did you get that scar on your temple?"

Elsa ran her fingers along the thin, raised, white line on her temple, remembering the sharp pain of the chandelier's glasslike ice piercing her skin just before she blacked out from the blow to her head. "I was in an accident, or rather I will be in an accident in about four years."

Without thinking, Queen Idun raised her own hand to meet Elsa's on her scar. "Whatever happened to you?" her mother asked.

Elsa grasped her mother's hand, bringing it down to her heart. She shook her head, waving off any discussion of the events following her coronation. "It's a long story, and in the end, everything turned out splendidly," she glanced a little longingly over to Anna.

Anna ran up to them with Olaf close behind. "Wait, so you're telling me that in eight years I'm going to be married… _with a daughter_? Did I marry a dashing, debonair prince? Is he terribly handsome?"

Elsa chuckled. "Well, he's… I guess he's handsome. He's my brother-in-law! I don't think of him as anything more than Kristoff!"

"Oh!" Anna swooned, "I am _in love_ with that name! Tell me, when do I meet him?"

"Wait Anna, you believe what Elsa is telling us?" her mother asked.

"Mama, Elsa just made a snowman out of the thin air, and he's _alive_. I think I'm going to err on the side of caution and believe what she's telling me," Anna advised. "Besides, I like this Elsa who loves me and hugs me, and lets me in her room."

Olaf waddled closer to the queen to ask her, "Hey, are you my mama too?"

Queen Idun shook her head. "I think it is safe to say no, but you do seem like a nice er…. _boy_?" She looked to Elsa to confirm that he was male.

Elsa shrugged, thinking about when she walked into the library to find a naked, human Olaf asleep on the sofa. "Uhm, well… Circumstances in the future give me reason to say that is correct. I won't get into it, because I honestly don't believe you can handle it, but trust me, he _is_ a boy."

Anna tugged at Elsa's elbow. "You didn't tell me when I meet Kristoff."

Quickly, Elsa told her, "Almost right after you learn about my powers."

"But you just told me about your powers. Isn't that messing things up a bit?" Anna asked.

"I have no idea," Elsa laughed.

"Why are your powers this horrible secret?" Anna asked. "Why am I not supposed to know about them?"

Elsa felt herself growing frustrated again with all the questions. "Anna, the me who is normally in this timeline doesn't know how to control her powers. I only learned after some pretty awful things had to happen to both of us. You've been kept in the dark about my powers for your own protection. I-I hurt you once when we were small. It was decided that the only way to keep you safe was to separate us, but I've learned that doing so only made things worse. You know… the last thing I remember from my time was having a conversation with you about my desire to have a child and heir, then wondering how different our lives would have been had I opened the door to you when you knocked."

Queen Idun had been listening intently to every word of conversation between the sisters. She slowly stood up, straightened her dress, and calmly told Elsa, "There are some holes in your story about the future, Elsa."

"Holes? What do you mean?" Elsa asked.

"You told me you spent the day before with your niece and son. Then you just told Anna how you had a conversation with her future self about your desire to have a child and heir. It seems you should already have an heir in your son. Sweetheart, I think you've been alone in your room far too much, and perhaps your dreams are getting confused with reality," she lovingly caressed Elsa's face.

Elsa stepped away from her mother, something that was more like the Elsa Queen Idun was used to. "Mama, Aidan can't inherit the throne. He's adopted. As much as I love him, he can never be King of Arendelle."

Queen Idun shook her head and paced about the room. "So your 'son's' name is Aidan, and he's adopted? Anna's husband is Kristoff. I've never heard of a Prince Kristoff?"

"No," Elsa answered. "I'm fairly certain that you shouldn't have heard of him, unless you've purchased a large order of ice lately."

Her mother turned to look her directly in the eyes again. "You do realize that this is all rather impossible to believe, Dearest. You rarely ever even leave your room. You're telling me about this future for you and your sister. You're telling me that you shouldn't have been separated, which I have always felt was probably true, but I won't get into _that_ right now. The only thing I can see for certain is that you _do_ seem to have mastered your powers. The Elsa I know has hardly any control over them or her emotions. I just don't know what to believe."

Suddenly an idea popped into Elsa's head. "Mama, you're preparing to leave for Corona, am I correct?"

"Until this morning, I thought so," her mother answered. "Now I'm not so sure that I should leave you."

Elsa smirked, realizing she had the opportunity to change things with Anna for the better and also for Rapunzel and her aunt and uncle. "Take me with you. I can prove to you that I'm from the future. I know where Cousin Bella is being held."

* * *

><p><strong>It may seem like I'm speeding through, but I'm very ready to get to where I left off on this story. Also, I just love this.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: ****In Corona**

"Elsa, are you going to be okay?" It was Anna, the fourteen-year-old version of Anna, at least. She was worried about Elsa, as Elsa had been sick to her stomach once again. They were on the second full day of their voyage to Corona, and Elsa has been ill each morning. Elsa blamed it on seasickness, but she had never been seasick before in her life. She was beginning to wonder if it was something else all together, but couldn't believe it to be really true since she was somehow in the past. Even it wasn't true, it made Elsa realize that she had to find a way back to her own time as soon as possible. She had to return to James and the family she had fought so hard to create and maintain. First though, she was happy to make things happier for some of those she loved best.

Already she and Anna were returning to the closeness of their childhood. She was going to make sure that Anna wasn't so desperate for love that she would jump into a hasty engagement with Hans. Now, she was going to free Rapunzel a year early. Her cousin would spend one less year wondering when her life would begin. She wouldn't have to look out the window of the tower to see her lanterns, she could enjoy them in celebration with her family. Her aunt and uncle would have one extra year with their daughter. Yes, thinking of how she could end the pain and suffering of so many of her loved ones was the one thing she could focus on despite her mysterious stomach ailments.

"Elsa, _are_ you going to be okay?" Anna asked once again, concern showing in her eyes. "Mama was worried and wanted me to check on you. I'm worried about you too."

Elsa lifted herself from her bed in the cabin the sisters shared on the ship, ran a hand through her hair, and answered, "I'll be fine once we hit dry land, Anna."

Anna eyed her cautiously. "You know. I don't remember you ever getting sick like this when we traveled as small children."

Elsa smiled weakly, "I guess it's just one of the many reasons to try and stay young."

Anna plopped down next to Elsa, who wished she had plopped with a little less aplomb. "Can you tell me more about Kristoff?"

Elsa cleared her throat, "Well, he likes reindeer." She was trying not to think of the smell that came along with the reindeer.

"_Reindeer_?" Anna asked, thinking that befriending reindeer wasn't a princely pursuit.

"Yes, he has one named Sven. They're very close."

"Oh. Did you hear that?" Anna asked.

Elsa nodded. "It sounded like the lookout. He probably spotted Corona. I imagine we'll be docking soon."

Anna's eyes lit up at the thought. Once Elsa had convinced her mother to bring her along to Corona, she had to also convince her to let Anna come along as well. She emphasized how Anna desperately needed to get out, beyond the castle gates. That it was unhealthy to keep a young, vibrant girl locked up, even within the grounds of a castle. "Hey, can you imagine how surprised Papa is going to be when he sees us with Mama? I mean, especially when he sees _you_?"

Elsa laughed nervously. The one thing she wasn't looking forward to was confronting her father. Deep down she knew that a part of her loved him, but she also knew that he allowed himself to be controlled by fear and paranoia. In her tenure as Queen of Arendelle, she also learned that he had ruled his kingdom much as he had his family. It had taken a great deal of effort to set things right within Arendelle and their family. 'Yeah. It'll be a real shock, I'm sure," she replied with a flat voice.

When they docked, Elsa and Anna, arm in arm, followed closely behind their mother as she walked down the gangplank to be greeted by her brother and sister-in-law, the King and Queen of Corona. Elsa felt tears burning her eyes as she watched her dear Uncle Albert pick up his younger sister, twirling her in the air as if she were still a young girl and not the mother of two girls in their teens.

"Izzy, it's so good to see you!" he announced. "How I've missed you, Baby Sister!" Elsa enjoyed seeing her mother and uncle thus. She knew they had loved each other very much, but it was a pleasure to see it in person. It was especially to hear her mother referred to as "Izzy" or her given name "Isabel," rather than the stodgy "Idun" she took upon being crowned Queen Consort of Arendelle.

Once Uncle Albert returned her to the ground, Elsa's mother embraced Aunt Lillian, her oldest, dearest friend. She then announced to them, "Albert, Lillian, I hope you don't mind more company. Elsa decided that she absolutely had to come along with me, and she insisted that I bring Anna as well. Frankly, there have been some developments that caused me to agree. There wasn't time to get a letter to you before we arrived, but here they are," she gestured to the girls.

Elsa wanted nothing more than to be enveloped in one of her uncle and aunt's famous bear hugs, but she remembered that they only knew her as the little girl who had occasionally visited then isolated herself away from all who loved her for years. So, she curtseyed and quietly said, "Uncle Albert. Aunt Lillian." Anna quickly followed suit.

Uncle Albert stepped toward his two nieces and looked over them with his loving eyes. Elsa could see pain as well as love in his eyes, and knew he had to be thinking of his Bella, or Rapunzel as she knew her. She and Rapunzel were just a few weeks apart in age, after all. "Could these two beautiful, practically _grown_ women be my nieces? Surely not! Why the last time I saw them they were only knee high to a knee!"

"Well we've had nothing to do but grow these past ten years, Uncle," Anna replied with little thought.

Uncle Albert turned to Anna. "Ah, I see you're still the red-headed hoyden my mother called you the last time you were here, Anna."

Anna's eyes grew large as she worried she may have overstepped some boundary, which meant her mother would later correct her in private. Then her uncle laughed and said, "Good! I've always liked hoydens! You're mother was one as well!" taking some of her fears away.

"Granny's not here, is she?" Anna nervously asked.

"My mother?" King Albert asked. "Oh no. She's still tucked away on that island of hers. I've extended an invitation, but there's been no response."

"Thank goodness," Elsa heard her aunt mutter not entirely under her breath, causing her mother to shake with suppressed laughter. Her uncle rolled his eyes.

They entered an open carriage to ride back to the castle, and Elsa waited patiently for her mother to open the conversation to where she could tell them where Rapunzel was being kept. Thankfully, it didn't take long.

"How are you, Elsa?" her uncle asked, searching for deeper answers than the normal, "I'm quite well, thank you." It was obvious both her uncle and aunt were wondering about her powers.

"I'm quite well, Uncle. I now have control of my powers and convinced Mama I could make the journey to Corona without incident," she answered.

"I - uh. I didn't realize your powers were now an open topic?" Uncle Albert questioned.

"Oh, they weren't. I didn't even know about them until Elsa suddenly let me into her room the other day when I knocked and started talking about being from the future. She says that I'm married to a man named Kristoff and have a baby girl," Anna quickly commented.

"Excuse me?" Aunt Lillian asked.

Elsa's mother rubbed her temple and stared out to the Corona countryside, _her countryside_. "I know. It seems preposterous, but she has been in complete control of her powers. Our Elsa hasn't been able to do that since she was very young. They've been too strong for her. There's also that scar on her temple that she won't go into details over how she acquired it. My Elsa had no such scar, nor so many lines from both worry and smiling on her face. She has also said and done some things that make it plausible. "

"Such as?" King Albert curiously asked.

"She created a snowman out of thin air, and he's alive! His name is Olaf, and he likes warm hugs!" Anna told them. "Mama said we should leave him at home, because we wouldn't want to shock anyone in Corona though."

"Oh?" was all either Uncle Albert or Aunt Lillain could say.

"She also claims to know where Bella is being held and vows to rescue her," Anna again said with little tact or thought.

Aunt Lillian gasped very loudly. Uncle Albert shapely took in a breath and turned directly to Elsa.

"Young lady, please don't joke about such things. I will not have you upsetting your aunt.!

Elsa shook her head. "This is no joke, Uncle. I would never joke about our family in such a way! Bella has lived her life in a tower, hidden in a remote part of the forest. It's not even too far from the capitol city. The flower you used to heal Aunt Lillian when she was pregnant with Rapun…_Bella_ gave the baby magical hair that can heal and restore youth when she sings a special song. The woman who took Bella is raising her as her own, selfishly imprisoning her in fear in order to stay young."

"If this is true, then why didn't the woman just take a lock of her hair and leave her with us?" the king asked.

"Because when you cut it, it no longer works. Her golden hair turns brown and loses its power." She looked directly at her aunt then said something she knew only her uncle and aunt were currently aware of. "That is why she left that brown lock of hair in Bella's bassinet. It wasn't the kidnapper's hair, but Bella's."

Her aunt leaned across the carriage, her green eyes desperately searching Elsa's blue ones for the truth. "You know about that lock of hair?"

Elsa nodded. "You yourself told me or _will_ tell me about it while we watched over Bella's daughter sleeping. You'll realize it when you notice that El… the baby's hair is the same color as the lock of hair."

"She has a daughter?" the king couldn't believe the thought.

"Not yet. She will be married in a couple years, and you'll be there for the birth of your granddaughter."

"This all seems too extraordinary," King Albert surmised. "Though I don't doubt that she'll marry her intended at some point once she's recovered."

Queen Lillian took her husband's sizable hand into her petite one, "We can't allow our doubts to cloud the possibility that what Elsa is saying is true. What have we to lose? We have _everything_ to gain."

"Perhaps," the king agreed, still unsure.

The coach arrived at the castle. They ventured up to the family wing, and Elsa headed straight to the chambers was given each time she visited Corona in her timeline, but found her mother in them as well. She tried to laugh it off, but it was an awkward moment, as they truly belonged to her mother. Instead, she shared quarters with Anna. After refreshing themselves from their journey, they rejoined their family in the drawing room and found their uncle looking over a map, discussing Elsa's explanation of where Bella was with someone in uniform. He looked familiar, but Elsa couldn't see a face for the tricorn hat he wore.

"It all seems rather impossible to me, Uncle. The Princess Elsa has been sheltered in her own castle for years. How is she to know where our Bella is? I fear this is a girl's attempt to free herself from her own prison and will only upset my Aunt." Elsa knew that voice. It was the voice of her heart, and for some reason she hadn't expected to hear it while in the past. "She tried to ignore his pessimistic comments about her.

"James?" she said without even thinking how they had never even been introduced in this timeline. When she had been taken from the future, it had been two weeks since she had last seen his face or heard his voice. She had been so caught up in fixing the past, she hadn't realized how much she missed her future.

King Albert and James' heads both popped up upon hearing her call out James' name. They stepped toward she and Anna, and Uncle Albert made the introduction. "Elsa, Anna, this is my nephew, Admiral James Westbrooke. Jamie, this are my nieces, Princess Elsa and Princess Anna of Arendelle."

Ever the courtly knight of days gone by, he bowed to the sisters, "Your Highness, Your Highness. It is a pleasure to finally meet my Uncle's illustrious nieces. Though you seem to already be acquainted with me, Princess Elsa?" He stared at her with no small amount of wonder, but there was also caution in his gaze. It was evident that he feared she was up to some elaborate hoax.

Anna's eyes widened as she recalled all Elsa told her about the future and realized just who Admiral Westbrooke was to Elsa. "_That's_ _James_?" she asked. Then she smirked devilishly and whispered into Elsa's ear, "Not bad, Sis. Not bad at all. Makes me all the more excited to meet my Kristoff." Elsa rolled her eyes, but then she could never consider Kristoff attractive. She was sure that he was, she just didn't see it.

Elsa felt the heat rise to her cheeks as she blushed. Sadly, this James hadn't yet fallen in love with her, so she had to fight every instinct not to kiss him passionately on the spot, despite her desire to just touch him. Taciturn Admiral James Westbrooke wouldn't appreciate such intimacy from a complete stranger though. "Yes. We are… _well_ acquainted in the future, Admiral."

"Hmm. That's good to know." He returned back to the map. "Princess Elsa, could you tell us where on the map this hidden tower is? Our uncle and I will take a company of palace guards there at first light tomorrow to see if your story is true."

Elsa stepped between her uncle and James. "No, I will not. I cannot. I couldn't tell you by looking at a map. I was taken there by Eug… another friend and our uncle. I will have to ride out with you and show you the way myself."

"I'm going too!" Anna popped in.

Elsa shook her head and placed her arm in front of Anna. "No Anna. This could be very dangerous. Gothel will do anything to keep Rapun… Bella. I'll not put you in any danger."

"Which is why you should stay here as well, Your Highness!" James argued. Oh how she loved arguing with him. This was quite literally not the time though. "This is not a job for the Crown Princess of Arendelle!"

"I can quite take care of myself, Admiral," she quipped.

"Elsa!" her mother just entered the room, arm in arm with her aunt. "Please be careful! I don't like the idea of you leading a company of soldiers out to confront some mad woman obsessed with keeping your cousin prisoner."

James shook his head. "I don't like it either. I want my stance on Princess Elsa joining us noted."

"James, have you visited my grandmother lately?" Elsa suddenly changed the subject.

James froze. "I- uh. I saw her just yesterday. I wasn't aware my visits with her were common knowledge?" He noticed his aunt and Queen Idun both appeared shocked, but his uncle was not so much.

Elsa smirked, proud of herself for making him quiet. Then she stood on her tiptoes and whispered into his ear to where only he could hear, "I know her secret, and I _know_ that you know." To emphasize her point, she quickly created a snowball in the palm of her hand then dissipated it.

The color drained from James' face. He now had little doubt in his mind that this witty, beautiful, young princess was telling the truth… about _everything_. "Princess Elsa will accompany us first thing in the morning," he announced then remembered to defer to his uncle, "if that pleases you, Uncle. I believe I have fewer objections than I originally believed."

King Albert only nodded. He was curious as to what Elsa whispered in James' ear to make him change his mind so easily, and suddenly he was beginning to hope against hope that his niece was telling the truth and knew where is dear Bella was.

* * *

><p><strong>Just to clear things up... Our Elsa, the one who is twenty-five years old, is body and soul in the past with all of her scars and laugh lines and ANYTHING else she has acquired since she was seventeen. Everyone thinks she is sixteen seventeen, because that is the age their Elsa is. THAT Elsa is unconscious in the future. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: ****To The Tower**

"Princess Elsa, _what_ do you think you're doing?" James called out to Elsa as he entered the stables before dawn the next morning. He found Elsa dressed in what was a very fetching riding habit, sitting astride his horse, Argus.

"I'm about to ride out to the tower where Cousin Bella is and bring her home. What do you think I'm doing?" she asked, knowing what his answer would be.

James took hold of the horse's bridle. "You can't ride this horse. He is my personal steed. He was a gift from my maternal grandfather"

Elsa leaned down to hug the giant, black Shire horse and stroke his mane. "Oh, I know all about Argue. He and I have been friends for a great while. Or at least we _will_ be."

James wasn't swayed by the thought of Elsa supposedly knowing Argus in the future. He continued to protest, his green eyes brightened with frustration, and his dimple appearing. "You _can't_ ride _my_ horse, Your Highness."

"Actually I _can_, Admiral. I ride him quite well. You can ride Maximus over there," she gestured to a white horse with blonde mane eating apples. "He's always been a faithful steed."

"Maximus?" he incredulously asked. "I can't ride Maximus!" he whispered.

"Why ever not?" Elsa innocently asked. "He's always been a dear to me."

In frustration, James ripped his hat from his head slapping his leg with it. "I don't know how you know so much about the horses in this stable,Your Highness, but since you do, you should know that Maximus is the Captain of the Guard's mount. I assume he will be riding Maximus today."

"Oh _that_," Elsa replied. "The Captain severely injured his back chasing criminals yesterday, and his Lieutenant is commanding the company as well as going along with us to the tower. So you see, you actually _can_ ride Maximus. He is a horse, quite without a rider. Poor boy, he looks so sad. Of course he wants to go on this special mission."

"Then why don't you…" James began to rail at Elsa, but was interrupted by their uncle.

King Albert entered the stables, looking fresh and ready for the day's mission. "Ah James, how hospitable of you to allow Elsa to ride Argus today. James is always the utmost gentleman, Elsa."

"Don't I know it, Uncle! He's so chivalrous!" She arched a satisfied brow at James.

James started to saddle Maximus but shot an annoyed eye at Elsa. "Yes, apparently I am in a generous mood today, Uncle." He then whispered in Maximus' ear, "So help me, if you bite me this time…" Once he was astride Maximus, he led him next to where Elsa was with Argus, speaking in a tone only she would hear. "I'm feeling generous in that I'm not having you arrested as a horse thief!"

"Temper, temper, Admiral. Your ears are almost purple," Elsa advised, tapping her own ear with a gloved finger.

"My, my… _What_?" James was unable to form a complete thought. "How did you know my ears turn red, then purple when I'm agitated?"

Elsa urged Argus to trot ahead to where King Albert was, causing James to rush to keep up on Maximus. "I know a great many things about you, Admiral I even know your greatest fear."

"I have reason to believe that you could possibly be from the future, but I am worried that your sole purpose for living then will be to vex me!" James admitted. "You are quite adept at it!"

Elsa couldn't help but laugh. If this James only knew just why she loved to anger him so. Well, he'd probably be deeply embarrassed, but still… A devilish smile spread across her face. "I will say that it usually brings me _great_ pleasure."

Elsa led the contingent as they rode through the forest of Corona with her uncle, James, and Lt. Brandt close behind her. She was very thankful that her morning illness had run its course as she dressed, so no one would bother her about being ill. No one said a word about it, but all of the men were amazed at how well she seemed to know the forest, considering she had never before visited it. King Albert noted that she rode like an expert, but knew that his sister mentioned that Elsa hadn't since the incident with Anna. The Admiral noted that the Princess did indeed look quite at home atop his horse. He also noticed how lovely she appeared in her royal blue riding habit and greatly appreciated how it contrasted with her light, sunny hair an porcelain skin.

After riding hard for about an hour, they came to a stop next to hillside covered in ivy. James was ready to suggest that they were lost until Elsa dismounted, pushed the ivy aside, and stepped into a cave.

She quickly came back and asked in a loud whisper, "Are you guys coming, or do I have to rescue Bella myself?"

The men quickly dismounted, leaving their horses with a private. Inside the cave, Elsa turned to them with a finger to her lips. "We have to be quiet. We don't know if Gothel is with her. If she is, I have no doubt she'll do _anything_ to keep Bella for herself."

The cave eventually led to an opening. Every man with Elsa had to stifle his gasps of wonder when he exited the cave to find a serene, beautiful valley with a waterfall that fed a stream and a tower that looked as if it was as natural as the waterfall.

King Albert had no doubt his niece was telling the truth now. He didn't know how she had come from the future, but he was thankful she did. "I don't see any entryway. How do we get in there?"

Elsa shook her head. "I think there's one hidden somewhere, but I'm afraid we would make too much noise finding it. Allow me," she said as she made a pushing motion with her arms, creating a staircase out of ice.

The king motioned for James to lead the climb up the staircase to the tower, his hand ready to grab his sword if needed. Elsa and King Albert followed closely behind. As they neared the top of the stairs, Elsa felt as if there was something she should remember about Rapunzel in the tower, but she just couldn't bring it to mind. Then it occurred to her just as James pried open the wooden shutters and stepped inside.

"Be careful! Rapunzel is handy with a…" They heard a loud clanging noise, then a thud. "…_frying pan_."

Elsa held King Albert back in order to carefully enter the tower, hoping that Rapunzel would be less threatened by a woman's presence. It made sense to her, since she remembered that Rapunzel hadn't been exposed to the rougher sex since she had been kidnapped. Her large blue eyes peered inside the tower. She spied James sprawled, unconscious on the floor with a nasty bruise on his head. She didn't see Rapunzel's person anywhere. However, she did notice a train of incredibly healthy, freakishly long, golden hair.

"Rapunzel?" Elsa called out, as she stepped inside the tower, carefully watching her back for a frying pan.

"Rapunzel, please show yourself. We're not here to hurt you, I promise. I know that anything from outside the tower is frightening, but I'm your cousin Elsa. The man you attacked is your cousin James. We came here with you father. We wish to free you from this tower and finally take you home where you belong."

A timid voice attempting to sound brave spoke from the shadows. "I have no cousins. My mother always told me that she was an only child. I have no father. I was told he died before I was born."

Elsa sighed. It wasn't going to be easy convincing Rapunzel that Gothel wasn't her mother. It was still a year before she was to go on her adventure with Eugene, realizing that the world wasn't this nightmarish place Gothel told her it was to keep her in the tower. "Your mother also told you that the world is filled with ruffians, thugs, poison ivy, quicksand cannibals, snakes, and the plague, right? I'm sure you can see me. Do I look like any of those things? I don't even have pointy teeth."

"N-no. You look like you're not much older than me," Rapunzel answered, without leaving the shadows.

Elsa smiled to herself. Actually Rapunzel was only several weeks older than her, but she guessed eight years could make a difference in appearance. "That's right. I am Qu… _Princess_ Elsa of Arendelle. My uncle is King Albert of Corona. We're in the Kingdom of Corona, you know?"

"Are you here to take me because of my hair?" Rapunzel asked.

"Your _hair_?" Elsa asked. "Oh no. No, no, no! We would love you even if your hair didn't have magical healing powers." It was true, after all. Eugene was the only family member who even had the slightest experience with her hair when it was still magical. "I have magical powers too, Rapunzel."

"Do you?" she asked. "You have magic too?"

Elsa clapped her hands, causing it to snow inside the tower. "What is this?" Rapunzel asked.

Elsa stepped closer to the shadow. "You've never seen snow up close before, have you?"

Rapunzel held a hand out of the shadow to catch some snow in her hand. "I've read about snow but… _This_ is snow? It's so cold!"

Elsa nodded. "Rapunzel. Every year on your birthday you see floating lights in the night sky. They only appear on your birthday. You can't help but feel they're meant for you, am I correct?"

Elsa caught sight of familiar, large green eyes as they flashed at the mention of the lanterns.

"Rapunzel, those are floating lanterns. They're released by King Albert and Queen Lillian and the entire kingdom of Corona as a beacon for their lost princess on her birthday. You see, she was taken from them when she was baby. They hope that one day the lights will lead her home. They're meant to lead you home, your true home."

Rapunzel slumped onto the floor, no longer concerned with hiding in the shadows. She was so small and slight against her masses of hair. "The lights are lanterns? They're for a lost princess on her birthday? Are you trying to tell me that I'm the lost princess?"

Elsa sat herself next to Rapunzel and took her hand. "Yes. Tell me. Does your mo. Does Gothel seem overly obsessed with your hair, like it's the most important part of you?"

"Sometimes. _Most_ of the time," Rapunzel admitted, her eyes following her long train of hair. "She is always loving a caressing my hair, but she says some hurtful things to me. Every time I try to be independent or assert myself, she says something that hurts me."

"You're keeping her young, every time you sing that incantation while she brushes your hair, it restores her youth, Rapunzel. She stole you after a magical flower that kept her young was used to save the life of Queen Lillian when she was pregnant with you. Your parents, your _real_ mother and father, want _you_ in their lives. They don't care if your hair has magical powers. They only want _you, _the girl who plays guitar, is so very brave, and can paint the most beautiful painting imaginable. You can even bring Pascal and paint the entire castle. They just want to love you!"

Rapunzel looked down at the hand holding hers. Surprisingly it was warm, despite having created the cold snow just a few moments before. "How do you know all of this about me?" she asked.

"Well, while we're speaking of magic," Elsa informed her, "I was somehow transported eight years into my past and am trying to make things better for those I love the most."

"_You love me_?" Rapunzel asked. "You don't even know me."

"You're my cousin. After you return to us, you and I become very close. You're also his cousin," she pointed to the still unconscious James. "Your mother is his aunt, and your father is my uncle. You and I and my younger sister Anna will become the very best of friends. For the longest time, the only person closer to me than you is my younger sister, Anna."

Rapunzel pulled her hand from Elsa's. "This all seems too fantastical to believe."

"I understand all of this is rather like some sort of fairy tale, it's true," Elsa assured her.

"My mother will return from gathering supplies soon…" Rapunzel informed her.

Elsa stood, took Rapunzel by the hands, and said, "Then let's wake James, the man on the floor, and leave. Your father is waiting outside the window. We'll take Pascal, and your life can really begin. You can see the lights for yourself, and _be_ the light in your parents' eyes."

"Elsa Dearest, is all well?" her uncle called from the stairway.

Elsa looked to Rapunzel, who timidly nodded, "All is quite well, Uncle. Well, _mostly_. We need to wake James. I think, then perhaps we will be ready to leave here once we gather a few things."

Rapunzel reluctantly nodded. She immeasurably hesitant to leave the only home she had ever known, but this Princess Elsa seemed to know even her innermost thoughts. Maybe she really was this lost princess. After all, she certainly felt a connection to the lanterns released on her birthday. Maybe they really were for her. She grabbed her chameleon Pascal and timidly took hold Elsa's reassuring hand.

Elsa handed Rapunzel off to her waiting uncle, who knew the moment he saw her that Rapunzel was his lost Bella. There was no doubt, from her flowing, golden hair to her face and eyes, which were an exact replica of Lillian's.

"My dear, Bella! Oh my dearest Bella! You're the picture of your mother at the same age!" He pulled her into his arm and enveloped her in his warm, fatherly embrace. Elsa tried unsuccessfully to hide her tears of joy and thought of Aidan. She missed her little boy so much, and now that Rapunzel was with her family, had to focus on how to get back home to him. Her thoughts on returning home to her own child were pushed aside as she noticed Rapunzel pull herself away from her father's embrace.

Her voice stiff, and her body rigid, Rapunzel told King Albert, "My name isn't Bella. It's _Rapunzel_."

King Albert tried to hide his disappointment and hurt when it became clear that his daughter didn't know the name lovingly given to her at birth. "Yes, yes of course! You are seventeen years old, after all. You haven't heard anyone call you by your birth name… well, nevermind."

Elsa left the father and daughter alone to get to know each other in order step back inside the tower and wake James. She felt a little self conscious, doing what she was about to in order to wake him. After all, this wasn't exactly _her_ James. He was in the Arendelle of the future - at least she hoped he was. However, this particular James did need to wake, and she knew of a fool-proof way to do so. She placed a hand on his neck, took a moment to lovingly brush her fingers across it, then shot a sheet of ice onto him, causing him to quickly jump up then rub his aching head.

"What the? What happened?" he asked, seating himself back on the floor next to Elsa.

Elsa tried to contain her laughter. "Bella, or Rapunzel as she is now known, struck you in the head with a frying pan."

Rubbing the back of his head, he scanned the room for his cousin and only saw what looked to be a long train of hair that led out the window. "Where is she?"

Elsa pointed to the window. "She's getting to know her father. It may be an uphill battle to combat many of the lies Gothel has been feeding her all of her life. I think we had best get her away from here soon. The woman who has kept her and posed as her mother seems to be verbally and emotionally abusive. Rapunzel is already wary of us. A word from her… _that_ _woman_ she has believed is her _mother_ , would destroy any of the fragile trust I have established with her."

James sat there, just staring at her. Elsa couldn't tell if he was deep in thought or just in pain. "What?'" she asked.

James just shook his head and chuckled, causing Elsa to again ask, "What?" as she helped him to his feet.

"You, Elsa Aren, Crown Princess of Arendelle. You are something else, you know?"

"I have no idea whatever you could mean, Admiral," Elsa slyly replied as she started for the window.

James grabbed her hand to stop her, causing her to turn back to face him. It was now evident that his attention was very much on her and nothing else. She had seen that gaze often enough in her own time to recognize it for what it was. "No," he smirked. "No, I think you know exactly what you're about."

King Albert stuck his head in the window. "James! Elsa! We should get Bel… er Rapunzel to the safety of the castle. I will leave guards here to await this Gothel woman. She will not go unpunished for her crimes to our family."

James quickly dropped Elsa's hand and replied. "Yes, Uncle!" Then he ushered Elsa out of the tower before she could say anything else in response.

It was decided that Rapunzel would ride Maximus to the castle once Elsa instructed several guards in crudely braiding it to where it didn't drag along the ground. Elsa offered to allow James to ride Argus with her, since he was now without a steed and still quite honestly a little light in the head.

Rapunzel was understandably quiet throughout the ride back to the castle. Her large, green eyes were busy soaking in every little detail about the world beyond her tower, from the smell of the earth as the horses kicked it beneath their feet to the fragrance of the flowers lining the road. She rode next to her father, leading the contingent, with Elsa and James on Argus taking up the rear.

"You ride my horse rather well," James remarked into Elsa's ear as the rode.

Elsa scratched Argus between the ears. "In my time, I like to think of him as _my_ horse."

"Oh?" James remarked. "He is a most loyal steed. He is bred from a long line of noble steeds in my mother's family. The Dun Broch Shire horses are much sought-after. Only family members are given them. I can't imagine I would ever willingly part with him."

"Well, you didn't _willingly_ part with him," Elsa teased. "You just know when to pick you battles, and when it is best to concede defeat."

"That doesn't sound like me at all," he lied. "You were very good with Bella, I mean Rapunzel. Goodness, that's going to take some getting used to. I don't know how Aunt Lillian will take the change to her daughter's name. She named her for your mother, you know."

"I know. I imagine had I another sister her name would have been Lillian. I'm honestly surprised it's not mine nor Anna's. Of course, Anna was named for our father's mother, and I… Well, you know." Elsa replied. "How was I good with Rapunzel?"

James thought about it a moment. "Well, you're very patient with her, almost motherly. It was nice. One wouldn't expect such gentleness from an…"

"Ice princess?" Elsa asked. "No, I suppose one wouldn't. However, I do have some experience with things maternal."

"In the future, you have children?" James asked.

"So you believe me now?" Elsa asked.

"I think you've proven yourself quite sane and truthful," James replied. "Besides, I just feel in my gut that I could trust you with anything. So, how many children do you have?"

"I have a son, Aidan. He's almost two years old. I miss him terribly and wish to return home to him soon, now that we've freed Rapunzel."

"What of Aidan's father?" James asked. "Do I know of him?" He wasn't positive that he wanted to know if he knew of Aidan's father or not. It seemed wrong to think of this amazing young woman as bound to another.

"You could say that you know him," Elsa told him.

"Yours was not a political match, was it? You must love your husband a great deal," he surmised, feeling something akin to jealousy simmering beneath his surface.

Elsa felt James's breath on her neck and instinctively placed her hand on her abdomen. She _had_ to get home soon. "Words cannot begin to explain the love I have for my husband," she admitted.

"If I were free," James thought to himself but shook such a thought from his head. He wasn't free. His future was riding up ahead of them with her father, and it was his duty to remain faithful to all of them. Perhaps it would be best if he kept his distance from this intriguing Princess of Arendelle. He cleared his throat, hoping to clear his mind as well and told her, "He is no doubt a very blessed man to have your love."

"I think we are mutually blessed," Elsa admitted.

"Indeed," James agreed.

Both were quiet the rest of the journey to the castle, deep in their own thoughts. When they arrived at the castle, King Albert was helping Rapunzel down from Maximus when Queen Lillian rushed outside to grab her daughter in her arms.

"Bella, my baby!" she cried.

Rapunzel wrenched herself from her mother's embrace and again stated, "My name isn't Bella, it's Rapunzel, and I'm a young woman, not a baby."

Princess Anna and Queen Idun were now outside as well, all eyes on Rapunzel, who was barefoot, donning a simple purple dress, and seemed to have more hair than anyone had ever seen on another person.

Rapunzel eyed the crowd of people staring at her and longed for the comfort and safety of her tower. This was all just too much, and it couldn't really be true either. These people couldn't possibly be her family. Gothic and Pascal were her only family. This castle couldn't be her real home. It was just all too much for her. She started to have difficulty breathing, then everything turned black.

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><p><strong>I combined two shorter chapters here. We only have one more before we venture into truly new chapters. I for one cannot wait! Hope you're enjoying the journey!<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**** Resemblances**

Rapunzel awoke several hours later, her brow lovingly being wiped with a cool, damp cloth. Thinking she was back home in her tower, she thought it odd her mother was taking such care of her person and not just her hair. With eyes still closed, she curled into the body sitting next to her on the bed and moaned.

"Oh Mother! I had the most frightening dream! I dreamed that while you were away gathering supplies, a man walked though the window of our tower. I had to use a frying pan to protect myself! Then a young woman came through the window, claiming to be my long, lost cousin who has magical powers of snow. She told me that you kidnapped me from my real parents when I was a baby because you only love that my hair can keep you young. Then she introduced me to my father, and they brought me to a castle to live. That's the last thing I remember. Oh, it was so unbelievable, and everyone except for Elsa kept wanting to call me Bella, as if that could ever have been my name!"

"There, there my dearest girl. Everything will turn out for the best, you'll see," a warm, , strange, loving, soft voice, devoid of the barbs and sharpness that she was accustomed to.

Suddenly trembling, Rapunzel pulled away and looked at the person taking care of her with terror-filled eyes. "You! You're not my… This isn't my tower! Where's Pascal? Who-who are you?" she asked, already remembering the woman from when she was brought to the castle.

There had been unmitigated joy in the woman's eyes the first time Rapunzel had seen her. Now they seemed to be filled with sorrow and anguish. The woman sighed, the weight of sixteen years of hopes crashing against her heart. This wasn't the reunion she had always dreamed of, but it was one to be expected after sixteen years of forced separation. "Your chameleon is being taken care of by your cousin Anna. I am… I am Queen Lillian of Corona. You're in one of the suites of rooms in our castle. They're _your_ rooms, actually. I apologize that there's still a bassinet in here. I just… I couldn't ever put it in storage, even when I knew you had more than grown too big for it. It was the last place I laid eyes on you before you were taken from us."

Rapunzel studied the woman before her. She was an attractive woman with long, chestnut brown hair and kind, green eyes. There were lines around her eyes that appeared to be from years of crying bitter tears and praying unanswered prayers. Yet there was still something hopeful about them. A light flickered within them, not unlike the lanterns that always appeared in the sky on Rapunzel's birthday. They were brimming with hope.

"You're supposed to be my mother?" Rapunzel whispered.

Queen Lillian only nodded, choking back her tears and the desire to pull her daughter to her chest and never let her go. "Let me have Anna bring your pet to you so you'll have something familiar with you. It can't be easy to have been ripped from everything familiar." She stepped outside the door a moment. Then she returned with a young girl with strawberry blonde braids who quite literally bounced into the room with Pascal safely in her hands.

"Here you go, Rapunzel! I hope you don't mind, but I fed Pascal some oranges and grapes! It was fun watching him change colors. Oh by the way, I'm your cousin, Anna! We haven't been formally introduced yet" The younger girl smiled quite genuinely and seemed very eager to strike up a friendship.

"I-I'm Rapunzel. It's nice to meet you, Anna," Rapunzel told her, holding out her hand for Pascal to crawl onto her arm.

The door opened again, admitting the girl Rapunzel remembered as Elsa and a woman who appeared to be about the same age as the queen… her _mother_.

"That's is my older sister, Elsa, though you've already met. She's your age. I'm three years younger," Anna informed Rapunzel. "That lady with her is my Mama. She is Queen Idun of Arendelle, though in private everyone refers to her by her birth name, Isabel or even Izzy. She is your papa's younger sister. We're here visiting for the lanterns! It's so exciting to be here! Elsa and I haven't really been out of our castle since I was five, and she was eight."

"Really? Were you afraid of ruffians and thugs too?" Rapunzel asked her younger cousin.

"No! I love being out of the castle! My papa decided to close our gates and limit our exposure with everyone, including each other, after Elsa accidentally struck me in the head with her powers. That's why I have this white streak in my hair! I just found out about all of it. It sure is better than when I dreamed that I was kissed by a troll!"

Rapunzel worked to keep up with Anna's prattling, realizing that her mother, Gothel, would have called it mumbling and let everyone know that she was annoyed. She found that she rather liked Anna's mumbling though. Perhaps Gothel wasn't a very good person after all?

Rapunzel studied Elsa and her mother as Anna talked. Elsa looked very much like her mother, except for her hair color. Rapunzel had always wondered why she and Mother Gothel didn't look anything alike. Family resemblance was often mentioned in the books she read. She had thought it was more of a plot device that something that actually occurred in real life though.

"Your sister resembles your mother," Rapunzel quietly noted.

Anna nodded, watching Pascal curl up on Rapunzel's shoulder to sleep. "Uh huh. Elsa looks just like Mama, and I look more like Papa, though there's some Mama about me too."

Elsa sat next to her sister and smiled. "Thankfully neither of us inherited Papa's nose!"

"I've never looked like anyone else," Rapunzel quietly noted.

Elsa laughed. "You're kidding, right?"

"No," Rapuznel answered. "I look nothing like my mother."

Elsa shook her head. "You look nothing like Gothel. You are an exact replica of your real mother, Rapunzel. Like me though, magic has given us different hair color."

"I look like someone?" Rapunzel asked.

Elsa stood, pulling Rapunzel to her feet as well. "Come with me. Anna, you too. Aunt Lillian, Mama, could you please come here, please!"

She led them all to a large mirror hanging on a wall. She placed Rapunzel next to Queen Lillian, then her own mother next to Rapunzel. She then stood next to her mother and had Anna to her right. "Rapunzel, look in the mirror. Look at Aunt Lillian's eyes. Then look at your own. Are they not the very same? When next you see your cousin James, you see almost the exact same eyes. Now smile. See that quirky smile? You, Anna, and I all get that from my mother, your Aunt Izzy. It is your father's smile as well. My dear cousin, you are a combination of so many wonderful people who love you! You cannot deny genetics. The family resemblance in you is far too strong."

"I look like… my _mother_?" Rapunzel asked, staring at Queen Lillian's reflection in the mirror. "And my _aunt_? I have an aunt and _cousins_ - cousins my own age? I have a father and a mother who love me for me, who never stopped searching and hoping that I would be returned to them?"

Queen Lillian fought the urge to embrace Rapunzel just then. Slowly she seemed to be coming around, but like stalking a deer, she had to be ever so careful. Elsa noted the gradual change in Rapunzel's demeanor and happily squeezed her mother's hand with joy, causing her mother to stare down at the little intimacy. Despite the days that had passed since Elsa's sudden change in behavior, she was still quite shocked to have her daughter show her such affection. She found tears forming in her own eyes for many reasons as the five women stood before the mirror studying each other.

"The five most beautiful women in the world, am I correct, James?" A deep voice thundered in the quiet from behind them.

"Absolutely, Uncle. Absolutely," James answered, staring squarely at Elsa, causing her to blush.

King Albert walked straight to his wife and daughter, taking her hand and cupping his daughter's cheek with the other. "How are we faring, my dear?"

"I look like my mother… and my aunt and cousins," she timidly told him, unable to meet his kindly eyes.

The king smiled. This was something. It was a start. "That you do, my dear. That you most certainly do."

"I also look like you, somewhat." She glanced up, meeting his eyes. "I've never had a father before. I don't know how to act around you. I just don't know." She started to sob. Her father pulled her into his arms and allowed her to cry on his shoulder. Hers was a burden he gladly was able to finally shoulder.

Elsa held on to her mother's hand and grabbed Anna's, leading them out of the room with James following closely behind them in order to leave Rapunzel alone with her parents. They headed to the library in order to discuss everything.

Queen Idun was the first to speak. "I don't know how, Elsa. I don't understand it a bit, but thank you! Thank you first for coming out of your room and being you! Thank you for leading us to Bel-Rapunzel! Thank you for this!" she cried with tears streaming down her eyes as she held up the hand that Elsa so tightly held. "You have repaired all that was wrong in our family!"

Elsa looked to James, then to her mother. "Well, _almost_ everything. We really should go see Granny while we're here."

Elsa's mother dropped her hand. "Why on earth would you want to go see that woman?"

"I don't!" Anna chimed in. "I'm not volunteering to join _that_ mission!"

"She's your _mother_," Elsa reminded her own mother.

Queen Idun shook her head. "She doesn't _want_ to see me. She is always pushing me away. I don't want you to experience that, and I certainly never want Anna to again, not now."

Elsa glanced at James, who was keeping extremely quiet then said, "Until a few days ago, I was always pushing away Anna, and you. You know that I love you both, _so much_. You also know that I had reasons for pushing you away. I didn't _want_ to push you away and shut you out, I thought that was the only way to keep you safe. I did it _because_ _I love you_. Perhaps rather than accept that Granny pushes us away, we should try to understand why she does so?"

Idun crossed her arms to her chest in a defensive manner. "No. She probably wouldn't even allow us on Haven."

"Since when has that stopped you from trying to see her in the past?" Elsa pointedly asked her mother. "I know that despite what you say, you keep trying. Where do you think that Anna gets her habit of not giving up on the people she loves, especially me?"

"You know about that?" her mother whispered.

Elsa placed a loving hand on her mother's shoulder. "I know a great many things. All of our family's secrets eventually came out into the open, or they will in the future. I still can't quite figure out my correct verb tenses."

James then stepped in with a suggestion, "Uncle Albert is going on with the lantern festival, but now it is to be a celebration of Rapunzel's return. Perhaps, if we extend an invitation to the Queen Mother - stating that it is important to everyone that the entire family be together for this momentous occasion and to show our support to Rapunzel, that she is Crown Princess Bella, she'll come?"

Idun shrugged her shoulder. "Well, it won't hurt to extend an invitation to her, but I doubt she'll come. If she does, she'll probably just gift us with more of those odd mirrors from her mysterious woodworker she so likes rather than actually talk with us. Every time I see her, she gives me a new one. I've started selling them to a film flam man once we're in Arendelle."

"_Mirrors_?" Elsa asked, remembering she needed to get home. "Flim flam man?"

"Yes. Mother seems to think giving me mirrors makes up for her absence in our lives, or something. I don't understand it. Maybe they hold some sort of special meaning to her, I don't know." She rubbed the bridge of her nose the same way Elsa was known to do when she was stressed. "They've always just remind me of how my mother didn't love me enough to remain an active part of my life after my father was killed."

Elsa's eyes grew large and her pulse quickened. She knew now how to get home. "Mama, I promise you that it's not that at all. She…" she hesitated, looking to James, whose lips were pursed in anticipation of what she was going to reveal. Suddenly she had more sympathy for James when it was revealed to the family that he had known Granny's secret. Still, she remembered how betrayed she had felt by James. Also, _she_ had never sworn to keep Granny's secret. "Granny has my powers!"

Isabel had been taking a sip of tea and dropped her cup, shattering it. "What? No!"

Elsa watched as James' mouth opened, but no words escaped. "Mama, Granny has my powers. I know you thought that mine came from the Winterblooming Rose, and perhaps they partially did. However, Granny also passed them down to me. Apparently they run in the Aren family. Anna and I have Aren blood on both sides, so it's probably more shocking that Anna doesn't have powers than that I do. Granny's aren't as strong as mine, but as of now, she has no control over them. She's afraid of hurting you. She couldn't live if she hurt you. Trust me, I know."

Isabel paced the room, once again pinching the bridge of her nose. "This is all too preposterous! Does my brother know?"

"He does not," James answered, garnering disbelieving stares from Isabel and Anna, "but I do. I discovered her using her powers when I was a boy. She swore me to secrecy. _That_ is how Princess Elsa convinced me that she is from the future. No one else in this time knows."

Isabel lifted a finger to say something, but didn't know what to say. Her attention was redirected to the entryway in the room. King Agdar of Arendelle rushed into the room. No one noticed Elsa shrinking against the wall. "Izzy, the guards told me that Bella has been recovered? Can it be true? Is she finally home with Albert and Lillian?"

Isabel greeted her husband with a chaste kiss and a smile. "Yes Agdar, it's true, and we owe Elsa all the thanks of recovering her."

The joy on Agdar's face turned to one of abject horror. His eyes scanned the room, finding his eldest daughter trying to blend in with the curtains, freezing them in the process. "**Elsa! What are you doing here**!"

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><p><strong>Elsa's dad is on the scene. Get ready for fireworks, because I can promise you that Elsa won't be shirking by the curtains for long.<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Revelations **

Ice crept up the walls of the sitting room they occupied, as Elsa's breathing became unsteady. She had hoped, _prayed_ that she would return home before her father arrived in Corona. While spending time with her mother was a gift, she wasn't sure that she ever wanted to see her father again. Most of the time, she tried to not think of him at all. An anger, deep within her, started to broil within, oddly enough causing her powers to escape her control. Never had she felt so angry, so out of control before - not even when Hans held Anna and Aidan captive in a cave. Yet she was afraid as well. This was her father, and she had only known him when she was a young girl, frightened that her powers would injure someone. Part of her, the part cowering by the curtains, reverted back to that frightened little girl.

Her father stepped closer to her, sidestepping Anna, who attempted to hug him. "Elsa, I asked you what you are doing in Corona! You know that you have to you must remain at home, in the castle in Arendelle…" He eyed James venturing nearer to Elsa. "…for _safety_!"

Anna stepped directly in front of him, "Papa, Elsa has control of her powers now! Or she sort of does. This Elsa has control of her powers. Technically, she's not our Elsa, but one from the future. That's how she knew where Rapunzel was being kept."

Agdar shook his head, completely ignoring Anna yet again, and turned to his wife. "She knows about Elsa's powers? Isabel, how could you let this happen? How can we protect them? How could you bring the both of them here with you? Anything can happen!"

Isabel's shoulders slumped. This was basically the same fight they had fought for the past nine years. She didn't feel as if she had any fight left in her. Then she looked to Elsa, almost cowering in the corner, freezing the wall beside her, and thought of the calm, self-assured woman who had been as much a friend as a daughter to her in recent days. Everything had changed once Agdar entered the room. She reverted back to that girl, too scared to leave her room and encouraged to remain there. She steeled her spine. It was time to be her daughter's advocate, her champion, her _mother_. It was time to set Agdar straight and finally prove to him the error of his ways.

"Agdar, if you would take the time to _listen_ to your daughter, _Anna_, you would know that this isn't exactly our Elsa. It _is_ Elsa, but trust me, she has to be from the future. She knows things that she would't otherwise, like where Bella was."

"Rapunzel, Mama! Remember, her name is Rapunzel. She doesn't remember being Bella!"" Anna interrupted.

Agdar shook his head, refusing to listen to anyone. "Anna, you need to go to your room! We're leaving first thing tomorrow for Arendelle! Elsa, you can't be out like this! What if!"

Anna stamped her foot on the floor. "I'm _not_ going to my room, Papa! No more secrets! Elsa can control her powers! There's nothing to fear!"

Agdar grabbed Anna's elbow, pointing to the the frost-encrusted wall. "Do you call that control, Anna? That's not control! Go now, I know what's best for you!"

Elsa remained quiet throughout this exchange, staring at the floor, trying desperately to stop the storm raging inside of her. While Anna and their father argued, James quietly approached Elsa, "Princess Elsa, are you well?"

She lifted her blue eyes up to meet his green ones. _James_. James was there. It wasn't _her_ James exactly, but still _it was James_. The right corner of her mouth turned upward, forming a half smile. She then caught Anna's eyes, and sharing a knowing look, the other half of her smile turned upward. She closed her eyes, placing her hand on her abdomen, thinking of her James, her Anna, of Aidan, Betsy, Granny, and Kristoff, and the ice and frost in the room disappeared into nothing.

"Papa," she spoke with all the authority of a woman who had been queen outright of her own kingdom for over four years. "We are _not_ returning to Arendelle until _after_ the celebration of the lanterns. We will celebrate the return of my cousin to our family." She left her place by the curtains and gracefully, _confidently _walked toward her father shifting her focus occasionally between James and Anna.

King Agdar stiffened his stance. "Elsa, I don't know what you've been telling your mother… everyone, but I am your father. I know what's best for you. You should go to your rooms until we depart, lest anything happen."

"No," she protested, her voice cracked and just above a whisper.

"You've never defied me, Elsa. You've always been the good girl you've always had to be."

Elsa laughed a bitter, laugh. "Conceal, don't feel. Don't let it show. Of course."

James searched Elsa's face, unsure of whether he should stay or go. "Your Highness, may I be of any service?"

King Agdar took notice of the young man again. "Young man, who are you? What place do you have in the middle of his family discussion?"

James bowed, "I am Admiral James Westbrooke, nephew to Queen Lillian."

Agdar's gaze looked James over from toe to eye. "I have heard many admirable things about you, Admiral. However, this is a private, family discussion. I think it best if you leave us now."

James nodded and started to leave, but Elsa reached out her hand to stop him. "James stays, Papa. As far as I'm concerned, he is family. He's my hu… he's my _friend_, and I believe I need all the friends I can get right now."

James lifted his head slowly, arching a brow as he met Elsa's gaze. He caught Elsa's slip of the tongue, and several puzzle pieces started to come together in his mind. A smile small enough to only show Elsa his dimple quickly appeared then disappeared as he refused King Agdar. "I will remain where I am, Your Majesty, as long as Princess Elsa wishes me to."

Silently, Elsa mouthed, "Thank you." to him.

The exchange did not go unnoticed by King Agdar. What he witnessed made him more nervous than ever. "Do _not_ start defying me now, Elsa. I only have your best interests at heart, as well as Anna's," he argued, and the dam containing Elsa's anger broke.

"Did you, _really_, Papa, have our best interests at heart, locking us up and separating us all those years? Have you really had my best interests at heart when you've encouraged me to fear myself? Have you had Anna's best interests at heart in isolating such a vibrant, beautiful creature to a world of loneliness? My god, Papa, by my coronation she was so desparate for love and an escape from the dark abyss that our world was that she engaged herself to the first murderous sociopath who feigned interest in her!" She pounded her fist on a table, encrusting it in ice.

"What?" Anna, Agdar, and Isabel cried at once.

"That's correct. Let's forget that I was completely unprepared emotionally to become queen. Let's forget that you made lying, thieving, treacherous Wesleton Arednelle's closest trade partner for some odd reason, which I assume is something akin to appeasement. Let's focus on the fact that Anna, the person we have done all of this to protect, was so _desperate_, so _miserable_ that someone was able to take advantage of the situation, and it almost left the both of us _dead_! How can any scenario you've dreamed up in your head be any worse for us… for Arendelle?"

Isabel almost collapsed into a chair, taking Anna with her as she held on to her hand. Agdar turned from the faces in the room; his wife, whom he knew still loved him but stopped respecting him ages in the past, the younger daughter who was an innocent victim of any of this, the young man who seemed to hold more of Elsa's respect than he did, and mostly Elsa who seemed to actually _hate_ him. He lost his kingly stance. His shoulders slumped, his eyes bore down to the floor. "I was never supposed to be King of Arendelle."

"Excuse me?" Elsa asked, suddenly confused. "What do you mean by that, and what does it have to do with what you've done to Anna and me?"

He refused to turn and face them, or their eyes. He couldn't. "I was the third son. I wasn't the heir, nor was I even the spare. My brothers were before me. I was meant for the church."

Elsa shook her head. "Papa, what has that to do with our present situation? Uncle Eirik died from a fever when you were a boy, and King Alarik III's horse threw him."

He turned slowly to face his daughter, tears streaming from his face. "No, Elsa. That's just what we led the people to believe. That's not how my brothers died. The truth has haunted me every day since I was eight years old, and caused my mother to die of a broken heart. No parent should witness such a thing happen to their children, and I've tried to prevent it with you and Anna."

Isabel stared at her husband in disbelief. "What are you trying to tell us, Agdar? What have you kept from me all this time?"

He looked at her pointedly, 'Did you ever wonder how I knew to go to the trolls when Elsa struck Anna's head?"

Isabel clutched Anna's hand closer to her heart, almost afraid of what her husband had to tell them. "I had always assumed they were just comment knowledge to people.'

He shook his head. "No. My mother took us to see them when I was eight years old. She too was desperate to save her child. You see, my brother Alarik was with the same powers as Elsa. They're passed down through the Aren family, though we don't know when it will happen."

Elsa rubbed the bridge of her nose. "So I've been made aware and was just telling Mama and Anna."

Confused, Agdar looked to his wife. "Elsa was just telling me that the reason my mother has secluded herself on that island all of these years has been to keep up safe, because she also possesses these powers. I didn't want to believe her, but James here has seen them with his own eyes."

Agdar started to say something then stopped. "It makes sense. She comes from a cadet branch of the Aren family. It is most prominent in them. It also explains why Elsa's powers are more powerful than any I've seen. She gets it from the both of us."

Elsa found herself doing something she never in the past four years imagined doing, she reached out to her father, taking his hand into her own. "Papa, please tell us what happened to my uncles."

Agdar looked down at the elegant left hand holding on to his and realized that it wasn't hidden within a glove. She held his hand, flesh against flesh, and hers was warm, calm, and there was no sign of ice. He placed his free hand upon it, rubbing it as tears brimmed his eyes. Then he noticed a faint discoloration around her ring finger like those people have when they wear a wedding band. He too had caught Elsa's near slip and sighed. From what Elsa told him, he surmised that she would soon be Queen, her secret will be made known, but she'll also learn to control her powers and possibly find herself in love. There was no mistaking the way she looked at the young admiral. Her mother had once looked upon him the same way.

This was Elsa, but she was more like the girl she had been before Anna's accident. She was who she was always meant to be, and his heart swelled momentarily with pride. She wasn't his Elsa, but one from a future where she was better off without him, and he knew that it was true.

"My father died when I was a toddler. My brothers and I were raised by my mother, Princess Ane of Rosenstadt, who ruled as regent while Alarik was a minor. She tried to allow us as carefree a life as any other boys, and we spent much of our time playing together. One day when I was eight, Eirik twelve, and Alarik fifteen, we were having a snowball fight. As you can imagine, Alarik bested us at it. I suppose we got carried away. Something happened, Alarik tripped, and he struck Eirik in the heart with his powers. An advisor, who had been with the family since before my grandfather's time, told my mother about the trolls. It took us too long to get there though, and Eirik died before we arrived at the Valley of the Living Rock. There was nothing they could do. Alarik couldn't live with the knowledge of what he did to our brother and feared that he might do something similar to one of us. The next morning of Eirik's funeral, Alarik went riding. He took a rope with him, and he hung himself. In the course of a few days I lost both of my beloved brothers, my mother became despondent, and I was the king of a large land. After Anna's accident, I kept seeing Eirik, his red hair turning white, and Alarik's limp body hanging from that tree. I couldn't allow that to happen to my girls."

Tears ran along Elsa's cheeks. She knew exactly what her uncle had felt when he killed himself. She had felt the same when she resigned herself to Hans killing her. "Papa, why would you never tell us?"

"All these years later, it's still too painful," he whispered.

Elsa, her own voice little more than a whisper, asked, "You don't think that I'm a monster?"

Agdar ran his thumb along Elsa's hand as he held it. "I would be lying if I told you that I don't fear your powers some. I've witness firsthand the destruction that they can cause, but you Elsa are no monster."

The metal of her father's cufflink against her hand reminded her of another metal that had once touched her skin. "If you don't think that I'm a monster, then why did you have those shackles and that cell made for me?"

Agdar stepped back. "You - you know about that?"

Isabel jumped to her feet. "You did _what_?"

Elsa turned away from her father. "Yes. Anna's sociopathic fiancé held me captive with them while he left her to slowly freeze to death after I had accidentally struck her in the heart. They didn't hold me though. Anna sacrificed herself for me by stepping between his sword and me. Her act of true love broke the curse. Fear almost killed both of us, but love saved us, Papa. Why, did you have those shackles made?"

"I had them made to prevent you from killing yourself if somehow you ever harmed one of us again. I had them made to prevent you from following in my eldest brother's footsteps, Elsa. I had them made so you would live."

Arms crossed, Elsa walked to look outside the window. "There's a difference between just surviving and living, Papa. It's time for _all_ of us to live!"

King Albert walked into the room, noting the tension. "Agdar, you've made it! I hope you've heard our good news! Your Elsa is a remarkable young lady. You should be very proud of her."

Agdar turned to his eldest daughter, who wouldn't look beyond the city outside the castle walls. "I am proud of her."

Queen Lillian joined her husband. "Albert, there you are! Where is Rapunzel?" She looked about the room. "She told me that she was going to be right behind you while I took care of a matter with Mrs. Braun about dinner. Hello, Agdar."

Agdar bowed to his sister-in-law. "I would like to meet my niece."

A worried expression crossed Albert's face. "I just arrived in here, and she hasn't appeared. We should start searching for her immediately. She's not used to such a large residence. It could be easy for her to get lost."

"I'll help!" Anna chimed in. She had endured more than enough serious discussion for a bit. "It can't be too hard to find a girl with seventy feet of hair!"

"Seventy feet?" her father asked, garnering only a nod.

James stepped up, "I'll alert the guard and lead a search now."

Elsa turned from the window. "I'll go with you. I need a breath of fresh air anyway." She patted her mother's shoulder then quickly exited the room with Anna and James, leaving only her parents and aunt and uncle to discuss _everything_.

**Okay. First of all, I have had this in mind since LONG before the Snow Queen episode of OUAT aired last weekend. I'm talking, I've had this planned out since like, July. That said, perhaps there are reasons why Daddy-Dearest totally went overboard with protecting Elsa and Anna from Elsa's powers. Fear is a powerful, powerful weapon, as we know.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: The Woodcarver's Cottage**

"So," Anna slowly said as she and James attempted to keep up with Elsa while she took it upon herself to searched the castle for a missing Rapunzel for the past two hours, "that was a lot of information to digest earlier. I mean, who knew that Granny had your powers, or that Papa's brothers died in such a horrific way?"

"I don't want to talk about Papa right now, Anna," Elsa told her through gritted teeth.

James stepped aside to allow Anna access to her sister. She grabbed Elsa's elbow, pulling her to face her. "Don't you think we should though?"

"Anna, I can't," Elsa pled with her sister. "We need to find Rapunzel. There's still been no word from the guards we left at the tower of Gothel's whereabouts. She really shouldn't be left alone until we have that woman behind bars."

"Yeah but," Anna continued, "we _need_ to talk about all of this, Elsa."

"No!" Elsa turned away. "I can't focus on Papa now, Anna. I just can't! Let me focus on Rapunzel!"

Anna stood firm. "Elsa, he did what he did because he didn't want what happened to his brothers to happen to us!"

Elsa's head ached, she was feeling incredibly fatigued, and she was inordinately hungry even though she just ate a couple of hours earlier. She didn't want to discuss any of this with Anna, but she knew that her sister, especially the fourteen-year-old version, wouldn't leave well enough alone. Sighing in resignation, she pulled her sister into an empty room, James still following behind them. "Anna, you know that I love you, but where you are right now in life, you still look at Papa as _Papa_! Where I'm from, you and I have spent over four long years repairing our relationship and getting past the fact that his actions made me afraid so afraid of hurting you that I hurt you more in the process of supposedly protecting you! In doing that, I have had to put Papa in a little box and have had to compartmentalize all of the hurt, the anger, the betrayal I've felt regarding him! Now, after all these years it's brought to my attention that everything was his attempt at keeping history from repeating itself? It's not exactly easy just letting Papa out of that box!"

Anna looked up at Elsa with those big, pleading eyes that she had such a difficult time resisting. "But we can be a real family again, Elsa. We can be a real, honest-to-goodness family! Papa will see that you know how to control your powers, and everything will be fine! You just need to give it a chance and not push everyone away!"

Then Elsa saw the look in her sister's face, the begging, the pleading, the stubborn arguing. She had seen it before - at her coronation ball just before setting off The Great Freeze, and her heart broke. It didn't matter how difficult it might be to forgive her father, she had to do it for Anna. She would walk through the fires of Hell for her sister, so _trying_ to forgive her father shouldn't be impossible. "Fine. Anna, I will try, for you. I would do anything for you. I want you to know that Right now though, we need to find Rapunzel."

"Admiral Westbrooke, Your Highnesses!" A guard alerted them at the doorway.

James turned to face him. "Have you any word on Princess Rapunzel?"

"No sir," the guard answered. "The king wished for us to inform you that we have searched the entire castle, and the princess is no where to be found."

"She's gone?" Anna asked.

James ignored Anna and continued speaking to the guard. "Have every man search the entire city for her! She can't get far! Even though her hair is bound in a braid, it is still quite long and unwieldily. I'll join the search momentarily."

The guard nodded. "Yes sir. King Albert has already formed several search parties. He and King Agdar have already left to lead the search. Queen Lillian is with Queen Idunn in her chambers. Queen Idunn has asked for her daughters to join them."

"Wait, what?" Anna asked. "I want to join Papa in the search for Rapunzel!" Anna argued.

Elsa turned to her younger sister, and in her most authoritative voice commanded, "No Anna, you'll stay with Mama and Aunt Lillian. It's night, and it could be dangerous. _You_ need to stay here, where it's safe."

James dismissed the guard then agreed with Elsa. "Princess Anna, your sister is correct. It's isn't safe for two princesses to venture out, into an unknown city, alone at night, especially with this Gothel woman running loose. She could use either of you as a hostage for Rapunzel… if she doesn't already have her again. I must get to the stables right away. Please excuse me, Your Highnesses."

Elsa hugged Anna, but pushed her away all the while. "Anna, go be with Mama and Aunt Lillian. James, wait up! I'm coming with you!"

James stopped in the doorway, physically blocking Elsa's path. "_No_, you're _not_, Your Highness. You should stay here as well for just the same reasons we explained to your sister."

Elsa stared at James incredulously. She wasn't sure if he was being chivalrous or a chauvinist. Either way, it didn't matter. She was not going to be relegated to waiting with the women when she was the only person who actually knew Rapunzel, what she was interested in, where she might go. "You can't be serious, James. I'm the only person who actually _knows_ Rapuznel. I'm going. We haven't time to argue about this. You can stay with me, if you're worried about my welfare, but we both know that I'm more than capable of taking care of myself."

James stared at her, his ears starting to turn red with frustration. It wasn't proper for her to be part of the search party, yet he was reasonable enough to know that she made a valid point. She was the only person, other than Gothel, who actually knew Rapunzel. Everyone else was still getting used to her not being "Bella" anymore. Also, it was difficult to argue safety issues with a woman who had her own built-in weaponry if she wanted to use it as such. "Fine, but we stick together unless you go somewhere with your father or our uncle. Do you understand me, _Princess_?"

Something akin to fire flashed in her eyes as she told him, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

When they reached the stables, James and Elsa found them empty but for Argus, who was awaiting his master, already readied to depart by the grooms and ready to go. Every other horse in the king's stables was being used in the search to find Princess Rapunzel. James turned to Elsa, a look of victory gracing his face. "It looks as if you'll have to remain at the castle, Your Highness. Argus is the only horse left to ride."

Choosing to ignore the smugness seeping from every pore of James' body, Elsa pushed her way past him, mounting Argus before he could blink. She kindly reached a hand out to him. "Come on, James. It's not as if we didn't ride together from the tower just this morning."

James backed away from Argus. "Yes, but we were in the company of our uncle. We are alone now. I don't believe it would be proper." He had heard her slip of the tongue when she was arguing with her father, but the reality was that he was still unofficially promised to Rapunzel.

Elsa rolled her eyes. James must have been born fastidious. Normally she loved that about him, but now was not the time. Rapunzel's life hung in the balance. "James, you know that I need to be out there, looking for Rapunzel, and I know that you desire to be doing the same. Let's just work together, okay?" She held her hand out to him again, and that was when he noticed a scar on the back of her left ring finger, all but confirming all of his suspicions.

"How did you get that?" he asked.

"What?" Elsa asked, unsure what he was speaking of.

He jumped on Argus' back behind her, and pulled her hand to where they both could see the back of her palm. "That!" James pointed to the scar. It was a small circle, just big enough to contain three smaller circles and a sword pointing down toward her palm.

Elsa drew her hand from James' grasp. "I have never noticed it." She was telling the truth. She hadn't taken James' ring off in over two years. She vaguely recalled feeling the very small, harmless insignia on the inside of her ring. She motioned for Argus to leave the stable.

James took her hand again, more tenderly this time. "I have seen this scar before, on the hands of my mother and grandmother."

"Really?", Elsa asked, gingerly taking her hand from his, placing it on her abdomen. "I'm flattered to be in such good company." They rode through the city, searching for signs of a princess with extremely long hair. There was no sign of her anywhere, so Elsa suggested they visit a tavern in the woods she knew that Rapunzel liked to visit.

As they rode, James tried not to lose his head. It seemed almost too perfect to have Elsa in his arms. She was just perfect and wonderful. He had only known her for two days, but he couldn't imagine not having her in his life. And he knew. He knew that it was obvious that they were _more_ in the future. So, he continued, "Elsa… about that scar. You can only get that scar if you wear a ring belonging to the Clan Dun Broch. My mother's was on her right hand, because she was born in the the Clan. My grandmother's was on her left, because she married in the Clan… just like yours. The rings have a small molding with the family crest that somewhat brands those who wear them."

Elsa stared down at her hand, the heat of a blush creeping across her cheeks. "Well that…" It seemed so odd to feel nervous around James, yet she was.

"_That_," James interrupted. "I heard you, when you were arguing with your father, Elsa. When you told him that I was your friend, you initially started to say that I was something else. I think you almost told him that in the future I'm your _husband_. It's the only thing that makes sense. If Argus is somehow your horse, if you're wearing a ring from my family where you would wear a wedding ring. Elsa, am I correct? Are we man and wife in the future?"

A peal of lightning and thunder cracked across the sky, releasing a torrent of rain upon them. The wind began to howl. Elsa, despite not being bothered by the cold, began to shake. They came upon a small cottage on the road and stopped to wait out the storm and ask if anyone had seen Rapunzel.

It was a quaint little cottage, with elaborate wood carvings all along the exterior. James grew increasingly concerned for Elsa, as every peal of thunder caused her to jump and seemingly retreat into herself, silently, nervously wringing her hands together. The confident facade she wore crumbled into one of shear terror. He ran to the front door, banging so hard he almost knocked it down.

A short elderly woman with a hunched back, grayish-white hair, bulbous gold eyes,, a very wrinkled face, and sagging cheeks answered James' frantic knocking. "Whatever could ye be wanting in this storm?"

"Two things!" James answered as the rain poured down his face. "Firstly, could you spare some room for the two of us to warm ourselves? This storm is quite fierce! It's too dangerous to continue on our journey!"

The elderly lady stepped aside, opening the doorway for entrance. James managed to coax Elsa from Argus, ushering her inside the cottage. The interior of the cottage was covered completely with wood carvings, they even hung from every inch of the ceiling. It was obvious that they had intruded upon the hospitality of a humble wood carver. Something about this woman seemed different to James though he had little chance to truly contemplate it.

"What brings the two of you out in such wretched weather as this… especially on only one horse?" the woman asked, eyeing the frigidly still Elsa suspiciously.

"We were searching for our cousin, who has disappeared," James answered, keeping a hand placed on Elsa's arm. "That leads to my second request. Have you seen a young lady, around seventeen years of age, with inordinately long, blonde hair in these parts?"

The woman shook her head, handing James warm, dry blankets for he and Elsa while gesturing them toward the crackling fire. "No, no can't say that I have. However, I've been cooped up inside, working on goods to sell at the kingdom's lantern celebration. You say your looking for your cousin? Are you and the quiet one here brother and sister?"

James glanced at Elsa and laughed nervously, "No! She is not my sister!"

"Well then, I have a respectable home. Is this fair lady your wife?" the woman asked.

James was never one for deception, but he honestly didn't know how to answer her. "Well er, eh.."

Elsa seemed to become cognizant of her surroundings once more. Lifting her head to meet her host's eyes, she quickly answered, "Yes!" She then caught James' eyes with her own, smiling warmly into them. "Yes! We have been married almost a year. We're still practically newlyweds!" She placed her hand within his, intertwining their fingers and unconsciously caressed her abdomen as she spoke. She was answering not only the woman's questions but James' earlier ones as well.

"Hmph!" the woman grunted, stoking the fire. "It looks as if it won't be just the two of you by this time next year."

Elsa's head snapped back to the woman, her mouth agape in shock. "How did you know?"

"Elsa, what does she mean? Are you?" James stared at her in disbelief, unable to complete his own thoughts.

The woman shook her head. "I'm guessing you have yet to inform Papa. I apologize. It's just that I've been around for a long time, and I have a habit of seeing these things very early on. That said, the rain is probably going to remain tonight, even though the worst of the storm seems to have passed. I haven't room for you to remain within the cottage, but there's a shed next door that I keep ready for passersby such as yourselves. It has a bed and a fireplace to warm you. Please take care of yourself and stay there tonight. I wouldn't want anything to happen to a child of Dun Broch."

So surprised by the woman's discovery of Elsa's condition, neither Elsa nor James caught her last sentence. James seemed unable to catch his breath, and Elsa was unsure of what to say to the man who wasn't but would in the future be her husband.

"It seems the two of you have some talking to do… _alone_. Let me get you into the shed and give you some food and drink to take with you."

Mere minutes later, James and Elsa were safely ensconced within the woodcarver's shed, a fire roaring, and the two sitting quietly trying to partake of the simple bread and meat she offered them. They were each wrapped in a heavy wool blanket as their clothes dried before the fire. Elsa couldn't meet James' eyes, yet he stared at her with a penetrating gaze.

"Elsa, why are you traipsing about in such dangerous situations in your condition? Why did you not tell me?" James asked.

Elsa stared at her food, the fire crackling behind her. "I only recently started to suspect it myself. As to telling you… How can I tell a man I just met that in the future we're married, and I'm expecting his future self's child? Let us not forget that here I am just Princess Elsa, unmarried, supposedly _maiden_ daughter of King Agdar. I have to find Rapunzel, so I can return home to _you _and to Aiden."

His eyes darted to her, then to the fire. "Am I not Aiden's father? Was there one before me?"

Elsa didn't know why, but tears started to flow down her cheeks, and she couldn't stop them. "There was no one before you, but you aren't Aiden's father. You _are his Papa_. I am his Mama, but I did not give birth to him. His mother died in childbirth at time I thought you dead. I adopted him, thinking he would be the only child I ever would raise. This child," she stroked her stomach, "doesn't diminish his place in my heart. Though I can't deny that I am overjoyed to carry your child."

James laughed lightly. "I imagine she'll be beautiful, like her mother."

"_She_?" Elsa asked.

James shook his head. "Don't ask how I know, but yes… _she_. I know this just as I knew that despite being promised to Rapunzel now, from the moment our eyes first met, I knew in my heart that…"

"_You were mine_," Elsa completed his thought, smiling into his eyes.

"How did you know?" he asked.

She reached across the small table, lightly touching his hand with her own. "Some things are constant no matter the time."

James jumped from his seat, kneeling next to Elsa. "Elsa, to think that you're mine, and I'm yours." He pulled her head to meet his, letting his lips speak the volumes his voice could not. Elsa closed her eyes, almost losing herself in the embrace she had missed since before she was brought to this time. She had missed his lips, his arms, his hands. Some things truly did remain the same despite the time. His blanket opened, and she ran her hands along his bare chest and arms. Then she stopped. This James didn't have the scars from when pirates attempted to sever his arm. She pulled herself back from him, shaking her head violently, wrapping the blanket covering her tighter about her body.

"I can't, James."

"Of course," James stood. "We're not married in this time."

Elsa stood to meet his eyes, placing her hand on his heart. "No. It's not just that. You are James, and I love you no matter what, but you aren't _my James_. I belong to the man waiting for me in the Arendelle of the future. It's you, but I still feel unfaithful."

James nodded and silently started to make a pallet on the floor on which to sleep. "You may have the bed, Elsa. I'll take the floor."

Elsa silently walked toward the bed, unsure how to proceed. She crawled beneath the covers, staring at the man who would be her husband. Thankfully James turned to her, a smile on face as he curled up on the pallet. "I think I will be a very blessed man indeed. Goodnight, Dear Elsa."

"Goodnight, James."

* * *

><p><strong>It's been a while, but here you go. Soon we'll find out where Rapunzel is. I'll warn you now that after next week, though I'm going to work on this diligently for now, after the 12th it may be after New Year's before I can post much.<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Wherever You Are**

James Westbrooke, Prince Consort of Arendelle stared sadly at his unconscious wife. He had returned home from a trip to inspect the Borderlands, expecting to find his wife's open arms awaiting him. Instead, he found her anxious sister and grandmother, nursing her as she lay unconscious in their bed. _Something_ had happened to her in Anna and Kristoff's rooms just hours before he and Kristoff returned home. Anna told him that there had been a bright flash of light, Elsa had disappeared, another flash of light, then she reappeared, unconscious. It had been four days, and there was no change.

The court physicians couldn't explain it and were afraid to speculate why their queen would not awaken. She didn't appear to have any injuries to her head. The Kingdom waited for word with baited breath. Certain members of the council had started discussing drafting a Regency Act, naming Anna Princess Regent, not that Anna wished to be Regent. She only wanted her sister to awaken. She had hardly left Elsa's side since the incident, except to care for Betsy and Aiden. She felt it her duty to take care of the boy while his mother couldn't. She knew without a doubt that Elsa would do the same for Betsy.

Currently, Anna was doing much the same as James, watching her sister's motionless sleep, holding on to her hand so desperately that she must have been afraid Elsa would stop breathing if she let go for even a moment. Her eyes were red and puffy. It was obvious that she had been crying before she returned to Elsa's side. Granny sat nearby, her worn face haggard and full of despair. Elsa would deny it, but she wasn't just the queen. She was the heart and soul of their family. The world just was not the same without her soul actually _warming_ their lives.

James walked to a window, glancing at the kingdom his wife so loved. His chest felt heavy yet deflated. Gripping the window sill, he sighed audibly. "Is this half the misery she experienced when I was presumed dead? If it is, then she is far stronger than I, because I don't know how I can go on if she doesn't."

Anna's eyes darted to meet his. Sad though they were, their determination never faltered. "_She will_, James. _She will_!" Just above a whisper she added, "She has to."

Granny placed a handkerchief to her face, stifling a sob. Unable to do so, she left the room. Anna did not inherit her tireless optimism and hope from her. It was taking all that she had within her not to freeze the entire castle in her grief.

James sat next to his wife, lovingly running his hand along her hairline. "This _cannot_ be how it ends. I had felt so sure that this month would be the one we… never mind. It does no good to dream of things that may not ever be." He ran his fingers through Elsa's loose hair. "She is so beautiful, so peaceful. I pray that she's in no pain."

Then James noticed something different about his wife. Gently, he brushed her bangs from her forehead and gingerly examined her temple, searching for the scar he knew she bore from the battle she fought at her ice palace. It had always been a reminder to him of the scars she bore on her heart as well. It wasn't there. Scars didn't just disappear.

"Anna," James called her attention. "Have you noticed that the thin scar on Elsa's temple is gone?"

Anna peered over to inspect her sister. "It is gone! I hadn't noticed, but then I'm not as observant of details as you and Elsa are. How odd!"

James looked up at his sister-in-law. "Yes. How odd indeed!"

Kristoff walked into the room, directly to Anna, placing a kiss on her forehead. "Still no change?" Anna only shook her head. "Kai didn't wish to disturb you, but wanted you to know that dinner is ready to be served. You both should eat something."

Anna glanced longingly at her sister, willing her to wake then and there, then turned nodded silently, and allowed Kristoff to lead her from the room. She turned to her brother-in-law, "James, you need to eat as well."

James smiled weakly, waving her off. "I'll get something later. I… I can't leave her alone. She was forced to spend too much time alone before…"

"Okay," Anna agreed, choking back more tears, then leaving in a rush.

When Anna and Kristoff were gone, James laid down beside his wife, his face next to hers. Rubbing his thumb along her porcelain cheekbone, he allowed his own tears to fall from his face. "Elsa Dearest, you must wake up! You've slept long enough! You must wake up, because Aiden has been asking for his Mama. He is so little and needs you so still yet. Anna needs her sister. We both know that she is very capable of ruling as queen, but she needs _you_ in her life! You two were kept apart far too long! Granny needs you as well. You are the light and hope in her world, Elsa. You are the one who taught her that love is the answer to your powers. And I need you, Dearest. I need your eyes watching me so lovingly. I need your wicked smiles, your laughter, your touch. You are my very heart. I don't believe I can continue without you. I never truly knew what it was to live until you loved me! You are the rock and strength of our family as well as its light. Don't take your light away from us, we love you so. Come back to me, _or let me follow you wherever you are_!"

"James?" Granny had returned from wherever she went.

He stood, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Kristoff came to take Anna down to dinner. I told them that I didn't want to leave her alone."

Granny walked to the young man, and pulled him away from the sickbed. "You must go eat as well. I haven't seen you eat a bite since this happened. You must keep up your strength. We don't want Elsa waking to find you've starved yourself to death."

James resisted, "I can't leave her, Granny."

"I will be right here, James. She won't be alone. Go! Take care of yourself then see your son. He misses the both of you."

James nodded. Granny was right. He couldn't remember the last time he ate, not that he had been hungry for anything than the sight of Elsa's sapphire eyes. He left the room and headed in the direction of the small dining room downstairs, but stopped outside of Anna and Kristoff's empty room.

Anna mentioned that Elsa had been studying a mirror that Anna had purchased from a film flam man just before disappearing. Wanting to know what had been going on in her mind before the accident, and just wanting to be where ever she was, James meticulously studied every inch of the mirror. It was made of wood and intricately carved. He read the Latin inscription at the top, "Respice in praeteritum mutare… Look within to change the past? How odd." He continued to study the mirror, repeating the Latin phrase in his head five times bringing a bright light that came quickly, taking James with it when it disappeared back into the mirror.

* * *

><p>Elsa was exhausted but couldn't sleep. Admitting she was expecting to James meant admitting it to herself as well. She hugged herself under the covers of the bed. She was happy, truly happy. Or she would have been if she were home, with her James and Aiden and Anna, Kristoff, Betsy, Granny as well. This was what she wanted, but fear started creeping within her soul. What if she never got back home? She hadn't really thought about it, but what would she do? Here she wasn't married. She wasn't even queen. Her father was still her guardian What would become of her or her child if they had to remain there? James, this James, would step up if it came to that, but that wasn't how their love story was supposed to be written. Rapunzel's homecoming wasn't supposed to turn out like this. Had she seriously messed up everyone's future? She hadn't even stopped to think about the repercussions of what she was doing. She had to get home, and she was fairly certain that her grandmother's mirrors were the key to getting back.<p>

She peeked above the covers to watch James fitfully tossing on turning on the floor. He was a good, oh so good man. It never ceased to amaze her just how good he was. Apparently he always had been. It was his nature to take care of her and all those whom he loved. They _had_ to find Rapunzel. Worst case scenario was that Gothel had her again. The best case was that she was roaming the streets and roads of Corona alone, completely naive of the world about her. She didn't even have Eugene with her as her guide!

She practically jumped out of bed, "Eugene!" She hadn't even thought of Eugene. How were he and Rapunzel supposed to meet if he didn't discover her in the tower? If Anna knows about her powers, and they're close, how will Anna meet Kristoff if she doesn't go in search of _her_ after her coronation ball? The full weight of her actions was beginning to press heavily upon her chest. She started to have difficulty breathing. The room began to spin. Then there was a flash. James disappeared from his pallet on the floor. Another flash of light stuck the room, depositing James upon his pallet once more.

Elsa, forgetting her covers and state of utter and complete undress, jumped to check on him. "James! James! Please answer me!" she pleaded, kneeling on top of him, caressing his face.

James shook his head, rubbing his temples. "I'm fine. I'm fine." Then, upon hearing Elsa's voice he focused his eyes on her worried face. "Elsa, you're awake!"

Elsa cupped his chin in her hands. "Of course I am. I saw the flashes of light. You were here, then you disappeared for a moment, then you reappeared!"

James tore his gaze from his wife, realizing he was no longer in Arendelle Castle. "There were flashes of light? Where are we?"

Elsa cocked her head, worried he had a head injury. "We're in a woodcarver's shed in the middle of the Forest of Corona. We're searching for Rapunzel."

"What? How did we get here?" He started to get up off the floor. "Rapunzel's missing?"

Then Elsa noticed the scars from his arm injury. The firelight illuminated the one on his forehead from the ship explosion that almost killed him. This was the James of the past. This was _her James_. "James! You're here with me!" She wrapped her arms around him, kissing ever inch of him.

Closing his eyes, relishing in feeling his wife's touch once more, he laughed, "I most certainly am, _wife_!" before pinning her to the floor, kissing her soundly. "You're awake! I have missed you so much!"

Elsa gazed up into his green eyes, burning with relief and desire. "James, I think we have to discuss some things. Did you get here through a mirror?"

James traced his lips along her neck, down to her shoulders. "Yes. I think that I did. Did you?"

A moan escaped Elsa's lips as James' hands and lips traveled her body. "Y-yes, I think I did. We're in the past, James."

James stopped kissing her momentarily to trace his fingers along the scar on Elsa's temple. "That might explain why the you I left comatose in Arendelle was missing this."

Elsa giggled as he tickled her. "The last thing I remember in our time was wondering what life would have been like if I had opened the door to Anna before my disastrous coronation. Then I awoke seven years in the past."

"The last thing I remember thinking in Arendelle was that I wanted to be wherever you are, and here I am. Elsa, I thought that I had lost you forever when you wouldn't wake up! I just needed to be with you!"

Elsa stared into his very soul, a soft smile spreading across her face. They would fix everything together. "Well I'm right here, _husband_, and I have missed you as well. The rain is pouring so heavily, and it's storming again. We can't leave for some time, and you know how I need to be distracted from storms.." She bit her bottom lip provocatively before busting out in laughter. She was too happy having _her_ James with her to worry about anything.

Ravenous longing in his eyes, James growled into her ear, "Let the storm rage on."

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry, I had to end the chapter with that line. The plot thickens and thickens. I promise I'll let you know where Rapunzel is <em>soon<em>.**


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